Economic impact
Heart disease and stroke – cardiovascular disease – are expensive for the world. In 2003, cardiovascular disease cost the European Union €169 billion.1 The most up to date data from the United States of America shows that cardiovascular disease costs nearly €310.23 billion in direct and indirect annual costs.2 By comparison, the estimated cost of all cancers is €146.19 billion and HIV infections, €22.24 billion.2
The economic burden of heart disease is no longer confined to the affluent, industrialized world. With the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the developing world.3 Its rise is linked to the increase in prevalence of risk factors such as tobacco use and relative lack of access to interventions to managing the ensuing disease.3
The economic impact is felt both as a cost to the country’s health system as well as the loss of income and production of those affected either directly by the disease and as caregivers to those with cardiovascular disease, who cease to work.3 This is exacerbated in the developing world where cardiovascular disease affects a high proportion of working-age adults.3
In China, annual direct costs are estimated at €30.76 billion or 4% percent of gross national income.3 In South Africa, 25% of the country’s health care spending is devoted to cardiovascular disease.4
Cardiovascular disease as a threat to economic stability
The economic implications of cardiovascular disease are vast. In developing countries, heart disease has historically affected the more educated and higher socioeconomic groups, but this is changing.5
What researchers are finding is that in developing countries cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects working-age adults from lower socioeconomic groups.4,5 Also, people from lower socioeconomic groups fare worse if they develop heart disease; their mortality after a heart attack is higher than someone from a high socioeconomic group.5
This has led researchers to claim that if the global epidemic of heart disease continues it will have an impact on the viability of a number of countries’ economies.4 Already, researchers estimate that between the developing economies of Brazil, India, China, South Africa, and Mexico, 21 million years of future productive life are lost each year because of cardiovascular disease.4
1 J Leal, R Luengo-Fernandez, A Gray, et al. Economic burden of cardiovascular diseases in the enlarged European Union. European Heart J. 2006 Jul;27(13):1610-9.
2 T T Haase et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics--2006 update: a report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 2006;113(6):e85-151.
3 TA. Gaziano. Reducing The Growing Burden Of Cardiovascular Disease In The Developing World. Health Affairs. 2007;26(1):13-24
4 The Center for Global Health and Economic Development. A Race Against Time: The Challenge of Cardiovascular Disease in Developing Economies. 2004. The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York
5 J Mackay, G Mensah, Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke. 2004 World Health Organization. Geneva