The high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and the associated 5-12-fold increase in IHD mortality underscores the critical need for comprehensive population-level and high-risk preventive interventions.
The large proportion (64%) of the population with risk factors for cardiovascular disease and the substantially (5-12-fold) increased IHD mortality in those risk groups, calls for actions aimed at preventing premature IHD deaths. Such action should include measures directed towards the whole population and comprehensive treatment programmes for high-risk individuals, including intervention to stop smoking. The substantial overlap between risk factors calls for one high-risk clinic caring for all risk groups.
Berglund et al. (Sat,) studied this question.