30 per cent of people who
are economically inactive have a heart or circulatory health
condition, finds IPPR
Someone with heart disease
had a 22 per cent likelihood of leaving work, more than someone
with cancer or mental health
issues
Cardiovascular deaths vary
greatly across the UK, see this map to find out how many could have been avoided
by local authority
UK could have prevented
one in 20 deaths in 2019 if it had maintained even half the
previous rate of progress on
prevention
Call for action on
obesity, preventative medicines, exercise, tobacco and air
pollution to save lives and help people stay in
work
People are more likely to leave work due to a heart condition
than any other health issue, according to a new report from the
Institute for Public Policy Research
(IPPR).
The think tank found that more than
mental health (14 per cent), cancer (16 per cent) or any other
health condition, a heart disease diagnosis carries the biggest
risk of leaving the labour market. Someone with the onset of
cardiovascular disease (CVD) between 2021-2 had a 22 per cent
likelihood of leaving their job.
Of working-age people who are
economically inactive, almost one in three have a heart, blood
pressure or circulatory health
condition.
This is particularly acute for people
over the age of 50, which is currently the government’s target
group for getting people back into
work.
There is significant variation in
cardiovascular disease mortality across England and Wales, with
the North West particularly badly affected. If the entire of the
UK had the same outcomes as the best tenth of local authorities,
there would have been 32,000 fewer deaths in 2021 alone – the
equivalent of 5 per cent of all
mortality.
This is linked to a slowdown in
progress on prevention in the last decade. Had we maintained even
half the progress on preventable cardiovascular disease mortality
observed between 2005 and 2010, the
report estimates that there would have been nearly 33,000 fewer
deaths in 2019 – one in 20
deaths that year.
While NHS waiting lists have been
steadily growing over recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic,
cardiology waiting lists have tripled since 2012, higher than the
growth in the overall NHS waiting
lists.
Heart disease is highly preventable,
with around 80 per cent of heart disease deaths being avoidable.
However, it requires proactive preventative
action.
IPPR is calling on the government to
implement a recovery plan for treating cardiovascular disease,
helping both the NHS and the economy,
by:
-
Delivering new preventative
policies, such as
extending the current ‘sugar levy’ on soft drinks to all
high-fat and high-salt products, and using the revenue to
subsidise healthy food options
-
Getting waiting lists for
cardiology down,
through increasing access to preventative medications,
retaining staff and expanding access to personalised
care
-
Investing in
research, with an
immediate injection of £220 million for R&D in
cardiovascular disease prevention – with an explicit goal of
crowding in private investment
Chris Thomas, head of IPPR’s
Commission on Health and Prosperity,
said:
“After great strides in tackling
cardiovascular disease in the
20th
century, the UK is now stalling if
not reversing. This is not just costing lives, but also
livelihoods. The good news is that heart disease is one of the
most preventable health conditions, but the government has to get
on to the front foot and deliver proactive policies. Both human
lives and economic prosperity depend on
it.”
