Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2023; 120(5): e20230250

Managing Women’s Cardiovascular Diseases: It’s Everyone’s Job

Gláucia Maria Moraes de Oliveira , Nanette Kass Wenger

DOI: 10.36660/abc.20230250

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of disease burden in the world. Recent data from the 2021 Global Burden of Diseases project have estimated standardized rates of DALYs of 3568.0 (disability-adjusted life years – one DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of total health) and 162.2 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants, with a standardized prevalence rate of 6905.6 per 100 000 inhabitants, in Brazil. While considerable progress has been made in decreasing CVD deaths in Brazil from the 1980s to the early 2020s, there has been a worrying increase in crude mortality and DALYs in recent years, especially among young women, due to myocardial infarction, among other causes. Therefore, new strategies are needed to improve cardiovascular health. ^,

Brazil is a continental country with many inequalities despite a health system with universal coverage. This system is based on the Family Health Program present in 5568 municipalities across all Brazilian geographic regions. From 1990 to 2019 there was a higher number of deaths and DALYs due to stroke in women versus men in all areas, especially in the North and Northeast of Brazil, while the numbers of deaths and DALYs due to ischemic heart disease were similar in the different regions for both sexes. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has recently released a report on primary health care in Brazil, with no mention of CVD in women, but only suggestions for approaching breast and ovarian neoplasms. However, CVDs cause twice as many deaths as all neoplasms combined in Brazilian women.

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