Global Coalition for Circulatory Health event on multimorbidities

01 Sep 2019

The Global Coalition for Circulatory Health gathered for a side event around the UN General Assembly this week. WSO Global Policy Chair Prof Bo Norrving contributed to the event - "Exploring solutions for multi-morbidities prevention and control: the case for circulatory health". Other participants in the panel included David Wood (past WHF President) and Vivekanand Jha (President of the International Society of Nephrology).

Multi-morbidity, the concept under discussion is core to stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, and vascular diseases, which together form a strong cluster along with hypertension driving premature morbidity and disability globally. Multi morbidity, where patients experience several conditions needs to be recognized as a major prognostic factor on its own right and clinicians and health systems need to be able to respond to multiple needs of patients to reduce mortality, disability and improve quality of life.
While multi-morbidities are expected to increase largely as a result of demographic change, circulatory diseases share many risk factors and show incredible potential for prevention. This potential provides a strong "glue" that binds partner members of the Global Coalition for Circulatory Health in their work towards global health goals. Prof Norrving presented recent epidemiological data from Sweden, which demonstrates that incidence of first and recurrent strokes can be substantially decreased with effective intervention on risk factors, providing proof of principle that prevention works. The priority now is to ensure that inequalities in access to preventive and acute care are reduced, so that those countries currently experiencing the greatest increase in stroke and circulatory disease - typically LMICs - can get ahead of the curve on prevention.

Multimorbidity and strengthening of the workforces will be themes for future discussions within the Global Coalition for Circulatory Health, which will have a next next summit in June 2020.

For more on the shared agenda between stroke and circulatory disease download Sustainable Action for Circulatory Health White Paper

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