The global burden of cardiovascular disease in adults A mapping review

The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in adults is increasing. Over the past several decades, CVDs have remained the leading cause of death worldwide. Among CVDs, most mortality estimates are attributed to heart attack and stroke. Another measure of CVDs is disability-adjusted life years, which is the sum of years of life lost and years lived with disability, and provides an index for an estimate of the total number of productive years lost. Therefore, CVDs pose a daunting public health challenge. Several well-known risk factors that substantially contribute to CVDs are preventable, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, air pollution, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, and unhealthy dietary intake. Risk estimation is the foundation of preventive cardiovascular health. CVDs risk calculators for clinical and public estimates are available for this purpose. However, the burden of CVDs and its risk factors vary greatly according to demographics and geographical regions. Therefore, this article describes the burden of CVDs and risk factors in adults according to the World Health Organization's defined regions. Furthermore, emerging CVDs risk factors, population-based prevention approaches, risk estimation calculators, preparation, and manpower issues are discussed.