Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2021; 116(3): 432-433
“Know the Enemy and Know Yourself”. Cardiovascular Risk in the National Health Survey
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Cardiovascular Risk Estimates in Ten Years in the Brazilian Population, a Population-Based Study".
The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a masterpiece about military strategy published around 2,500 years ago. In his work, Tzu states: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Although we are not army generals, teachings from Tzu may be proven useful in cardiovascular science as well. They reinforce the need for understanding the current picture of cardiovascular epidemiology in our society and how it evolves, as a primary weapon to determine how resources and efforts may be more efficiently applied.
Cardiovascular diseases remain a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Although research in the past decades have substantially improved our knowledge about the main drivers of cardiovascular disease epidemiology, the high rates of cardiovascular morbimortality yields a very heterogeneous picture around the globe. In our country, for example, in the past few decades we have experienced a sharp decline in smoking in all Brazilian states. However, we also observed raising trends for other risk factors such as diabetes and other obesity-related metabolic changes, as well as population aging, producing mixed impacts on cardiovascular morbimortality rates.
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