Cyprus Mail 28 September 2020 - by Staff Reporter
The number of deaths from coronary disease per one million inhabitants in Cyprus in 2016 stood at 1007 which is below the EU 27 average of 1194, according to figures released by Eurostat on Monday. It was 1073.7 in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Cyprus Society of Cardiology has launched a campaign that will run through to October 4, to raise awareness about coronary disease, the biggest cause of death worldwide, and how to prevent it.
The campaign is being run under the auspices of Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou and the Cyprus Medical Association.
Key messages are exercise, healthy eating and no smoking. “For a strong heart we must all introduce aerobic exercise in our daily programme, consume more fruit and reduce fried and fatty foods, sugar and salt to a minimum,” they said. Regular tests, prohibiting smoking at home, work and places of entertainment, maintaining blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol levels at normal levels are instrumental to eliminating the risk of coronary disease, it added.
With 5362 deaths from heart attacks per million inhabitants, Lithuania registered the highest rate among the EU Member States in 2017. There were high rates also in Hungary (3812) and Slovakia (3753).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest rates were recorded in France (466 per million inhabitants; 2016 data), the Netherlands (550) and Spain (637).
Published a day before tomorrow’s World Heart Day, Eurostat’s figures show among the 4,527,500 deaths reported in the EU in 2016, 542,700 were due to coronary diseases, including heart attacks.
Nearly 90% of these deaths affected people aged over 65 (475,600 deaths, 88% of the EU total).
Cyprus recorded a total of 6050 deaths of which 647 were due to coronary disease.
In order to compare between countries, the absolute numbers of deaths across Member States need to be adjusted to the size and structure of the population.
At EU level, the standardised rate of deaths from coronary heart diseases stood at 1194 deaths per million inhabitants in 2016. This was a decrease of 17% from 1445 deaths per million inhabitants in 2011. Men died from coronary heart diseases more frequently than women, with 1625 deaths per million men compared to 881 deaths per million women.
In every EU Member State, the standardised rate of deaths caused by coronary heart diseases was higher for men than for women. Among the EU Member States, Latvia recorded the highest gender gap, with 2 626 more male than female deaths per million inhabitants from heart attacks. Latvia was followed by Lithuania (gap of 2573 deaths per million
