URSI Lunch Seminar - Towards an understanding of why Russia has such high cardiovascular mortality

Towards an understanding of why Russia has such high cardiovascular mortality

Despite recent declines since 2005, the cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rate in Russia under the age of 70 years is 8 times higher than in neighbouring Western countries. I will present results from a comprehensive assessment of this issue that are coming out of a major research programme : The International Project on Cardiovascular Disease in Russia (IPCDR).  We have explored a range of issues: how far major differences in the way that cause of death is determined may have biased international comparisons; what is known from existing data about trends and levels of established risk factors in Russia (eg smoking); how far differences in detection and treatment of disease may contribute to differences in CVD. Most of our work however has gone into cross-sectional studies (2016-18) of population samples from two Russian cities (N=4500). This research study (known as Know Your Heart) has involved extremely detailed examination of socio-demographic, behavioural and bio-medical characteristics. This includes ECG, echocardiographic examination of the heart, detection of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid arteries as well as blood samples. Where possible we have compared our results with a similar study conducted (2016) in northern Norway (the Tromso 7 study). These results as a whole are starting to build up a very detailed picture of the likely nature and drivers of CVD mortality in Russia and provide strong clues as to what factors are, and are not, likely to be involved in explaining differences with Western countries.