{"id":133,"date":"2011-08-29T13:55:32","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T13:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/08\/essential-heart-drugs-remain-badly-underused-particularly-in-poor-countries.html"},"modified":"2011-08-29T13:55:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T13:55:32","slug":"essential_heart_drugs_remain_b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/08\/essential_heart_drugs_remain_b.html","title":{"rendered":"Essential heart drugs remain badly underused, particularly in poor countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past two decades, drug therapies have done wonders to improve the survival and quality of life for people living with heart disease and stroke. Antiplatelets, such as aspirin, decrease blood clots; beta blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE<\/span>) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) reduce blood pressure; and statins curb \u2018bad\u2019 cholesterol levels. Despite these benefits, however, these drugs go underused, particularly in low-income countries, according to a study<\/a> published yesterday in The Lancet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong action is needed,\u201d Tony Heagerty<\/a>, who studies cardiovascular medicine at the UK\u2019s University of Manchester, wrote in an accompanying commentary<\/a>. \u201cAn epidemic of cardiovascular disease is just beginning in many countries that are ill prepared for what is to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, led by Salim Yusuf<\/a> of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, recruited more than 150,000 people from 17 countries who self-reported their medical histories and drug use. Of the 7,500 people who had coronary heart disease or a stroke, only 25% took antiplatelets, 17% took beta blockers, nearly 20% took ACE<\/span> inhibitors or ARBs, and fewer than 15% took statins. In addition to the new report, Yusuf\u2019s team also presented the findings over the weekend at the European Society of Cardiology Congress<\/A> in Paris.<\/p>\n

The rates of drug use were far lower in poorer countries, the researchers found. For example, someone suffering from heart attack or stroke in India is seven times less likely to receive aspirin and 20 times less likely to be on statins than an average Canadian, the Times of India<\/em> reports<\/a>. Other groups with particularly low drug use were women, younger people, rural populations, current smokers and the non-obese.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in well developed health-care systems many patients are not receiving the best secondary prevention treatment,\u201d wrote Heagerty. \u201cThe message is clear: the strategy needs a fresh look and reinforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past two decades, drug therapies have done wonders to improve the survival and quality of life for people living with heart disease and stroke. Antiplatelets, such as aspirin, decrease blood clots; beta blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) reduce blood pressure; and statins curb \u2018bad\u2019 cholesterol levels. Despite these benefits, however, these drugs go underused, particularly in low-income countries, according to a study published yesterday in The Lancet.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drugs-drugs-and-more-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}