Article #1 A study conducted by Capewell, Ford, Croft, Critchley, Greenlund, and Labarthe (2010) studied coronary heart disease risk factors trends and mortality in the United States. The purpose of this study was to look at cardiovascular risk factors in the United States since coronary heart disease is among the leading causes of death in the world. It is not only the leading cause of death, but coronary heart disease is also costing the United States a lot of money. Since much of the population is affected by coronary heart disease, health care costs are extremely high for the people affected.
They explored the probability of reducing the risk factors, which include smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and hypertension. This study relates to the body of literature cited throughout the article in the way that it is exploring common health risk factors and what can be done to reduce these risk factors. Many of the articles referenced explore heart disease or habits like smoking and diet that have negative affects on people’s health. In order to conduct this study the authors of this article used an IMPACT model, which shows coronary heart disease trends n a population.
Along with the IMPACT model they used information from the United States Census Bureau. By combining the two they were able to make projections for what the population would be like in 2010. Their goal was to estimate how many deaths could be prevented using three different risk factor scenarios. In their first scenario, they predicted that the trends of risk factors obtained from their data would stay the same. In the second scenario, they predicted that the risk factors would drop in accordance with HP2010 objectives.
Lastly, in the third scenario they predicted that risk factors ould drop in alignment with the healthiest group of people from their data. The independent variables in this study were the cardiovascular risk factors and the dependent variable was life span. In their study, they did not examine physical activity and the people receiving treatment for coronary heart disease remained constant. This study was conducted by looking at the three risk factor scenarios and with that estimating the number of deaths that could be prevented.
With their data and three risk factor scenarios they found different results for each scenario. If the recent upward trends ontinued then it is predicted that 32,000 people in the United States would die from coronary heart disease. With the second scenario if the HP2010 goals were reached then there would be 188,000 fewer deaths caused by coronary heart disease. In the third scenario, if risk factors were substantially lower and in line with the healthiest group then 372,000 fewer deaths would be caused by coronary heart disease.
By changing the amount of risk factors in a persons life greatly affects the number of deaths that would be caused by coronary heart disease. Gender and age also had affects on the number of deaths. Systolic blood ressure, BMI and diabetes were the risk factors that increased the most amount of deaths. The findings of this study suggest that if the risk factors including: smoking, high systolic blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol, obesity, diabetes and physical inactivity, are reduced then the amount of deaths caused by coronary heart disease will also be reduced.
The study found that the more risk factors that are reduced would lead to the most prevention in deaths. In scenario one the risk factors were estimated to continue to raise and therefore more deaths were caused by coronary heart disease. In scenario two and three the risk actors were decreased and therefore less deaths were caused by coronary heart disease. The results from this study are much like the results of other similar studies. A study in the United Kingdom showed that reduction in risk factors would lead to fewer deaths caused by coronary heart disease.
Other studies being done are showing similar results because reducing the risk factors leads to a healthier lifestyle for individuals therefore less chance of having cardiovascular diseases. The authors suggest for future studies that it would be helpful to do ethnic and economic analyses and to confirm their 2010 model when he data is available. Article #2 A study conducted by Mensah and Brown (2007) examined cardiovascular disease and the hardship it is causing in the United States.
The main purpose of this study was to examine the trends and burdens of cardiovascular disease and other heart problems because they are the leading causes of death in the United States. Health care money for cardiovascular disease in the United States is also extremely high since such a large number of the population is affected. Some of the main causes of cardiovascular disease are the population aging, the rise in obesity and the increase of the risk factors. Heart disease affects all ages and ethnicities. Because this disease is becoming more common and taking more lives there is high concern.
The affects cardiovascular disease has on the United States population could easily be reduced with people making some lifestyle changes including healthier diets and more physical activity. This article relates to the other literature cited throughout the article in the way that they are all focusing on health concerns, heart diseases and the risk factors in the United States. The increase in risk factors and heart diseases are a cause for concern in the United States and around the world because of the amount of lives affected by them each year.
This study was conducted by looking at epidemiologic data based on the population in the United States. The epidemiological data used in this study was data that focused on the negative impacts or causes cardiovascular disease had on the population. The data they explored covered explored the frequency, mortality, hospital visits, the economic burden and health disparities caused by cardiovascular disease. The authors used the data to explore the burdens that cardiovascular disease is causing in the six different categories. They also compared the differences in gender, ethnicity, age, different cardiovascular diseases, and the risk factors.
The independent variable in this study is the different categories that they explored and the dependent variable is the mortality rates or lifespans of the population. There was a lot of important statistical data found throughout this study. With this study they found that one in three adults have some form of cardiovascular disease. The highest risk factor of cardiovascular disease is increasing age and risk factors. The most common types of cardiovascular disease were ound to be hypertension, congenital heart defects, stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease.
Currently cardiovascular disease is the most costly disease in the United States due to the fact that it is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and nursing home stays. There are many risk factors that are causing cardiovascular disease to continue taking lives each year. However, increasing rates of obesity and type II diabetes are causing challenges for the public health. The findings of this study suggest that cardiovascular disease poses a large threat to the United States because it negatively ffects so many lives. If the risk factors including obesity, type II diabetes, etc. ontinue to rise at the rate that they are, then the threat the to the United States will also continue to rise.
Due to the fact that it is affecting so many lives and the health care costs are so expensive, action needs to be taken to decrease cardiovascular disease in the United States. Action should be taken by using the data and science available to promote policy and positive lifestyle changes in all age groups. It is vital to the public health and economy that changes be made to decrease cardiovascular diseases. The findings of this study compared to other studies are similar.
They all have found comparable data in that cardiovascular diseases are negatively affecting the population and that fewer lives would be affected if action were taken to decrease the risk factors. The authors left no suggestions for future research. Article #3 A study conducted by Prugger, Wellmann, Heidrich, Brand- herrmann, and Keil (2008) explored the cardiovascular risk factors and mortality rates of coronary heart disease in Germany. The purpose of this study was to examine the major risk factors associated with coronary heart disease since it is the eading cause of mortality and morbidity across the world.
Their goal was to explore preventative measures in a number of patients and to examine the affects it had on the mortality rates. Since cardiovascular diseases take so many lives and cause disabilities it is important for the public health that preventative measures are implemented. With this study they aimed to find that when preventative measures were taken if the mortality rates of patients would decrease. This study relates to the body of literature cited throughout the article in the way that they all focus on health.
Some of the articles eferences looked at risk factors, prevention, the burdens and coronary heart disease in populations. They all explored the affects that coronary heart disease is having on people and the measures that could be taken to lessen or prevent hardships caused by cardiovascular diseases. The patients of this study were obtained through hospital records. They were all up to the age of seventy-five and had to have some cardiovascular diagnosis. In order to qualify for the study the patients had to be at least six months prior to the start of the study and they had to fall into one of the four groups.
The groups include the diagnoses of, “a) first coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), (b) first per- cutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) without previous CABG, (c) first or recurrent acute myocardial infarction, and (d) first or recurrent acute myocardial ischemia without signs of infarction” (Prugger et al. , 2008). The study started with the more recent hospital records and worked down until the number of participants needed was met. The study was conducted using information ? from examining and interviewing the patients at least six months after their initial coronary experience in the diagnostic groups.
Their goal was to study the participants to observe them based on age, sex, group and the time since their diagnosis to obtain information related to cardiovascular disease. Follow up with the participants happened roughly 8. 0 to 9. 7 years after the initial interview and examination. They were not able to get into contact with some of the study participants and there were some participants already deceased. So the data from this study is based on 69. 9% of the patients that they were able to contact and find alive. The results of the study showed that more than half of the deaths in study participants were caused by coronary heart disease.
If the patients had history of diabetes or were smokers the mortality rates of those participants were much higher than the others. Along with that, if the participants had a rise in their systolic blood pressure the mortality rate was higher. Obesity, hypertension and raised plasma lipids are often linked with cardiovascular diseases and are marked as risk factors. However, to their surprise this study did not find any compelling statistics linking obesity, hypertension or raised plasma lipids to mortality in the participants of their study.