Trends and current questions of cardiovascular prevention in primary health care

Abstract

Although an impressive progress has been achieved in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, they are at the top of the mortality statistics in Hungary. Prevention of these diseases is an essential task of the primary health care. Cardiovascular prevention is carried out at primary, secondary and tertiary levels using risk group and population preventive strategies. The two main tasks of primary cardiovascular prevention are health promotion and cardiovascular disease prevention, and its main programs are ensuring healthy nutrition, improving physical training and accomplishing an anti-smoking program. The essential form of secondary prevention is the screening activity of the primary health care. The majority of cardiovascular risk factors can be discovered during the doctor–patient consultation, but laboratory screening is needed for assessing metabolic risks. The official screening rules of the cardiovascular risk factors and diseases are based on diagnostic criteria of the metabolic syndrome; however, nowadays revealing of global cardiometabolic risks is also necessary. In patients without cardiovascular diseases but with risk factors, a cardiovascular risk estimation has to be performed. In primary care, there is a possibility for long term follow-up and continuous care of patients with chronic diseases, which is the main form of the tertiary prevention. In patients with cardiovascular diseases, ranking to cardiovascular risk groups is a very important task since target values of continuous care depend on which risk group they belong to. The methods used during continuous care are lifestyle therapy, specific pharmacotherapy and organ protection with drugs. Combined health education and counselling is the next element of the primary health care prevention; it is a tool that helps primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Changes needed for improving cardiovascular prevention in primary care are the following: appropriate evaluation of primary prevention, health education and counselling, renewal of the cardiovascular screening system based on the notion of global cardiometabolic risk, creating a unified cardiovascular prevention guideline, and operating primary care cardiovascular prevention within the framework of an integrated prevention system. Orv. Hetil., 2012, 153, 1536–1546.