{"id":5147,"date":"2024-02-14T16:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/?p=5147"},"modified":"2024-03-07T11:28:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T11:28:37","slug":"heart-disease-single-largest-factor-work-ill-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/heart-disease-single-largest-factor-work-ill-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart disease single largest factor behind out of work ill health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heart disease is the single largest driver of people leaving the workforce due to ill health, according to new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).<\/p>\n

The new paper, Broken hearted: A spotlight paper on cardio-vascular disease<\/em><\/a>, finds that a heart disease diagnosis brings with it the largest risk of a person leaving the labour market, and that someone diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) has a 22 per cent chance of leaving their job. This compares to a 14 per cent risk for someone with a mental health condition and 16 per cent for a person with cancer.<\/p>\n

Almost one in three of all working-age people who are economically inactive have a heart, blood pressure or circulatory condition, the report says. This figure rises among over 50s, a group the government is currently targeting in its efforts to get people back to work.<\/p>\n

The report also reveals significant variation in CVD mortality across England and Wales, with the North West the worst affected region. It estimates that if the entire UK saw the same outcomes as the best tenth of local authorities, there would have been 32,000 fewer deaths in 2021 along \u2013 equivalent to 5 per cent of total CVD mortality.<\/p>\n

Around 80 per cent of deaths from heart disease are preventable, with diet and nutrition, metabolic risks (e.g. high BMI) and tobacco use constituting the three greatest risk factors.<\/p>\n

The report cites analysis from the British Heart Foundation that since February 2020, there have been nearly 100,000 more deaths involving CVD than would otherwise have been expected. It attributes this decline in outcomes to a slowdown in progress on prevention over the last decade. If the last decade had seen even half of the progress on preventable CVD mortality observed between 2005-2020, the report estimates that there would have been nearly 33,000 fewer deaths in 2019- equivalent to one in 20 deaths that year.<\/p>\n

While virtually all NHS waiting lists have grown steadily in recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic, cardiology is something of an outlier, and waiting lists have tripled since 2012, higher than the overall growth in NHS waiting lists.<\/p>\n

IPPR is calling on the government to implement a recovery plan for treating cardiovascular disease, helping both the NHS and the economy, by:<\/p>\n