European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day 2018

New Data Indicates Low Awareness of Heart Valve Disease May Prevent Elderly People from Seeking Diagnosis and Treatment

LONDON, September 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

• The call for improved education and diagnosis of heart valve disease comes following the results of a new survey of 12,820 people over the age of 60 in 11 European countries
• Only 3.8% of people know what aortic stenosis is, one of the most common forms of heart valve disease, despite it affecting approximately 2.7 million over 65s in Europe^[1],[2]
• Levels of concern for heart valve disease are very low (2.1%) compared to cancer (28.8%) even though annual mortality of severe aortic stenosis is higher than most cancers^[1],[3],[4]
• Only 46% of people regularly had their heart checked with a stethoscope which is the first step to detecting the condition, with only 24.06% of women having their heart checked at every visit compared to (30.2%) of males^[1]

A new survey of 12,820 over 60s across Europe indicates that low levels of awareness of heart valve disease may prevent elderly people from seeking diagnosis and treatment.^[1] The results from the survey, published in Clinical Research in Cardiology, coincide with the first ever European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day taking place in six countries on 8 September 2018. The campaign calls for action to improve awareness, early diagnosis and treatment across Europe.

PDF: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739668/EHVD_Heart_Health_Survey.pdf

     (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739660/EHVD_Logo.jpg )

The findings, which consider the results alongside those of an awareness survey conducted two years ago, indicate more people are familiar with heart valve disease in general yet, alarmingly, understanding of aortic stenosis, the most common form of heart valve disease affecting between 2-7% of people over the age of 65 has decreased.^[5] Only 3.8% of survey respondents could correctly identify this form of heart valve disease compared to 7.21% in 2015.^[1] In addition, almost two fifths of respondents (38.1%) were unaware of treatment options for heart valve disease.^[1] This is despite the fact that approximately 2.7 million people over 65 years of age are thought to suffer from aortic stenosis in Europe, a number only set to increase due to Europe's ageing population.^[2]