Potential and limitations of health policy to improve coronary heart disease prevention and to reduce the burden of disease: A Russian experience:

BackgroundMortality from cardiovascular diseases is particularly high in Russia compared with the European average. The National Priority Project ‘Health’, launched in 2005, aimed to promote prevention of non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, in primary care and to increase availability of state-of-art cardiovascular disease management.MethodsThis is a multiregional population based study with analysis of indicators for cardiovascular health and coronary heart disease in Moscow, St Petersburg, the Moscow region and across Russia, including a total population of 143.7 million inhabitants between 2005 and 2013. Data were collected using conventional methodology and originate from open statistical sources.ResultsThe overall age-standardized coronary heart disease mortality decreased in 2005–2013 by 24.7% from 383.6 to 289.0 per 100000 population, but with substantial interregional differences: it declined from 306.1 to 196.9 per 100,000 in Moscow (–35.7%), from 362.1 to 258.9 per 1...