Estonia has one of Europe's worst cardiovascular health records
Estonia's cardiovascular health indicators are among the worst in the EU, with cardiologists urging urgent action on childhood obesity and disease prevention. Cardiovascular disease remains the country's leading cause of death, including premature death.
Cardiovascular disease causes more harm to health worldwide than any other condition, and in Estonia it is also the leading cause of death, including premature death. Märt Elmet, chairman of the Society of Cardiologists, notes that unlike many other diseases, the causes of heart disease are well understood, and effective means of intervention exist — but they must be applied consistently.
Elmet says these illnesses are largely lifestyle-related, meaning risks can be reduced through behavioral change. Prevention is far cheaper than treatment, and even wealthy European countries cannot financially keep up with the burden, resulting in needless loss of health.
Share of preventable deaths higher than European average
While cardiovascular disease accounts for a quarter of preventable deaths across Europe, in Estonia the figure reaches 30%. Alar Irs, head of the University of Tartu's cardiology clinic, says that reducing preventable deaths requires first tackling the rapidly growing problem of childhood obesity — while 7% of teenagers were overweight in 2001, that figure has risen to one in five teenagers two decades later.
Plans to identify at-risk groups earlier
Irs also points to the need to focus on people at risk, such as those with hypertension, who can already be identified using existing data. Since a visit to an occupational health physician is currently the only mandatory medical checkup, authorities will soon examine whether it can be used to detect disease at an earlier stage. Liis Kruus, head of primary care at the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, explains that occupational health physicians already assess elevated risk or undiagnosed conditions and can draw up a prevention plan, though ongoing health monitoring remains the responsibility of a person's family doctor.
Each year, an average of 270,000 people seek medical care for hypertension, with treatment costs around 36 million euros. Overall, the Health Insurance Fund spends an average of 203 million euros annually on cardiovascular disease.
