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People living in the most deprived areas of England are more than twice as likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than people in the least deprived regions, according to new research from the British Heart Foundation.
The charity has now launched a public pledge calling on politicians of every party to make heart disease a health priority. It says that successive Governments have also failed to address the causes of heart attacks and strokes on the scale needed, which is storing up problems for the future. These risk factors, which include obesity and high blood pressure, disproportionately affect people living in the most deprived communities.
It wants urgent action on three fronts to reduce premature heart deaths:
- the better prevention of heart disease and stroke
- the prioritisation of NHS heart care
- the supercharging of cardiovascular research to unlock groundbreaking new treatments and cures.
Latest figures for 2022 show that the 10% most deprived areas have a rate of 109 per 100,000, compared with 50 per 100,000 in the wealthiest 10% of areas. This has increased from 94 per 100,000 in the most deprived areas and 45 per 100,000 in the least deprived in 2019.
Bold cross-government action needed to reduce CVD risk factors
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, Associate Medical Director at BHF, said: “We’ve known for a long time that there’s a well-established link between heart health and wealth. Yet too many lives are still being lost far too young to heart disease due to this injustice.
“People living in the poorest areas can face poverty, pollution, fewer healthy, accessible and affordable food choices, as well as poorer working and living conditions. Meanwhile, people from the wealthiest areas tend to have better outcomes and better access to healthy lifestyles.
“The gap in heart health between rich and poor is now widening at an alarming rate, and it’s happening at a time when the NHS is already struggling to tackle an enormous backlog of time-critical heart care. Urgent intervention is long overdue to prevent heart disease happening in the first place and to make heart care better, faster and fairer for everyone.”
The 10 most deprived local authorities in England include Blackpool, Manchester, Hackney, and Birmingham. The least deprived 10 local authorities include rural regions and smaller cities such as Wokingham.
The King’s Fund said the research matches its own work in the area that shows that the burden of CVD does not fall equally, with people in the poorest parts of the country much more likely to die from a cardiovascular disease.
Chief executive Sarah Woolnough added: “The heavy toll of CVD on the health and care system, the economy and the people and families it affects can be reduced substantially if readily available, cost-effective interventions for CVD prevention and treatment are widely deployed.
“Tackling the CVD challenge will require improved access to NHS diagnosis and treatment, particularly in deprived communities. But to really get at the root causes, there needs to be a wider package of national measures including bold, cross-government action to reduce risk factors like smoking, drinking, poor diet and lack of exercise.”