News Release

EuroAction demonstrates reduction in CVD

Peer-Reviewed Publication

European Society of Cardiology



Stockholm, Sweden: Early results from the EuroAction hospital project, announced today at the European Society of Cardiology, demonstrate how a nurse-led multidisciplinary programme, organised in busy general hospitals, can help coronary patients and their families to reduce their risk of major cardiovascular disease (CVD)1.

In six European Countries (France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK), the EuroAction project clearly shows that implementing the Joint European Societies' Guidelines on CVD prevention2 by nurse-led teams can, through a family-based, behavioural approach, lead to measurable improvements in lifestyle and related factors, thus reducing the risk of future cardiovascular events.

EuroAction patients and partners achieved improvements in lifestyle, other cardiovascular risk factors and in the use of cardio-protective medication. Patients stopped smoking, reduced their consumption of saturated (or 'bad') fats, increased daily intake of fruits and vegetables, and achieved greater levels of physical activity. Other CVD risk factors (e.g. weight and shape, blood pressure, and blood fat profile) all improved, and the vast majority were prescribed cardio-protective medicines. Patients' partners also adopted a healthier diet and increased their physical activity with corresponding reductions in weight and shape, blood pressure and blood fats.

"I'm delighted with these early findings from the hospital programme", commented Professor David Wood, Imperial College, London, UK, and EuroAction Principal Investigator. "It is well known that lifestyle factors play a major role in the likelihood of a person suffering a cardiovascular event. These results confirm the positive impact that nurse-led programmes can make to improve the quality of families' lives. EuroAction signals a new dawn in preventive cardiology, making it accessible to the vast majority of coronary patients and their families."

The EuroAction programme successfully reached out to a majority (73%) of all eligible coronary patients, and most (84%) completed the programme. All types of coronary patients were targeted, from those with an acute coronary syndrome (65%) through to stable angina (35%). A majority of the patients' partners/spouses (77%) also attended the programme.

With the assistance of EuroAction teams, over half (58%) of the patients involved in EuroAction who were smokers prior to their coronary event had stopped by the end of the hospital programme. One in five partners also stopped smoking cigarettes.

Considerable improvements were seen in the dietary habits of both patients and their families; saturated fat consumption levels of patients decreased by almost 16% (12% in partners), with 68% of patients (62% of partners) reaching the target of less than 10% saturated fat within their daily diets. EuroAction patients increased their consumption of fruit and vegetables by an average of 155 grams each day (113 grams each day for partners), with a 23% (25% in partners) improvement against baseline in the amount of patients eating the recommended daily amount of 400 grams of these types of foods. EuroAction patients increased their consumption of fish with 58% (71% of partners) eating oily fish three times or more each week.

EuroAction patients and families also became more physically active. A quarter of patients were regularly active (20% of partners) according to the Caspersen and Powell Classification; an absolute increase of 11% compared to baseline (5% in partners). Over three quarters (86%) of patients (83% of partners) reported themselves to be highly active according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), an improvement of around one-fifth against baseline. Objective measures confirmed these self-reported improvements with a step counter showing an increase of 1362 steps (739 for partners). Assuming an average of three feet per step, this equates to patients walking around an extra three quarters of a mile each day.

Cardio-protective drug therapies were widely prescribed with 95% of patients taking anti-platelet drugs, 79% on beta-blockers, 58% on ACE inhibitors/ angiotensin receptor blockers, 19% on calcium antagonists and 86% on statins.

EuroAction is an initiative of the European Society of Cardiology, which further highlights its continued commitment to improve the quality of life of the European population by reducing the impact of cardiovascular disease, and is solely sponsored by AstraZeneca through the provision of an unconditional educational grant.

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For further information about any aspect of the EuroAction programme, please contact:

Gina Dellios Jim Baxter / Fiona McMillan
European Society of Cardiology Cohn & Wolfe
Office tel: +33 492 94 86 27 Office tel: +44 207 331 5371 / +44 207 331 5333
Onsite mobile: +46 (0)73 950 8404 Onsite mobile: +44 7900 605 652 / +44 7711 764 356
Email: gdellios@escardio.org Email: james_baxter@uk.cohnwolfe.com
About EuroAction
  • EuroAction aims to demonstrate that a nurse led multidisciplinary team can help patients and families achieve the recommended lifestyle and risk factor reduction targets for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention
  • It is the largest ever demonstration project in preventive cardiology, involving over 10,000 patients and their families. EuroAction is a cluster randomised controlled intervention trial that is being conducted in eight European countries:
    • Denmark
    • France
    • Italy
    • Poland
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • The Netherlands
    • The United Kingdom
  • EuroAction embraces the complete spectrum of preventive cardiology: patients with established atherosclerotic disease in hospital, patients at high risk of developing CVD in primary care and their family members which sets it apart from other studies in preventive cardiology.
  • EuroAction is being conducted across Europe in busy general hospitals and family doctor practices; It is unique in evaluating the impact of nurse-led multidisciplinary preventive cardiology programmes. EuroAction is an important step towards the provision of comprehensive nurse led preventive cardiology programmes across Europe
  • One year results from EuroAction's hospital and primary care arms are expected in 2006.

About the Third Joint Task Force of European and other Societies on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice

  • The task force is constituted by representatives of the following eight societies and also by individual invited experts; European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), International Diabetes Federation Europe (IDF-Europe), European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), European Heart Network (EHN), European Society of Cardiology (ESC), European Society of Hypertension (ESH), International Society of Behavioural Medicine (ISBM), European Society of General Practice / Family Medicine (ESGP/FM).
  • The task force published recommendations on prevention of CHD in 1994 and these were updated in 1998, and most recently in 20032 addressing cardiovascular disease as a whole.
  • The priorities of the Guidelines are firstly, patients with established cardiovascular disease; secondly, high risk individuals and thirdly, the families of both coronary patients and high-risk individuals.
  • The aim of the recommendations is to improve the practice of preventive cardiology by encouraging the development of national guidance on cardiovascular disease prevention and its communication, implementation and evaluation through national societies in each country.

About CVD and its prevention

  • Cardiovascular diseases, of which CHD is the most common, are the major cause of death worldwide3
  • CHD remains the leading cause of death in men aged over 45 years, and in women over 65 years.
  • The burden of CHD remains high due to the ageing of populations and increased life expectancy of coronary patients due to more effective treatments for acute coronary heart disease and use of prophylactic drug therapies.
  • The main objectives of CVD prevention are to increase the duration and improve the quality of a patients' life and to improve survival rates.

References
1. Wood DA, Kotseva K, Jennings C, Mead A, Jones J, Holden A, Connolly S, De Bacquer D, De Backer G on behalf of the EuroAction Study Group. EUROACTION: A European Society of Cardiology demonstration project in preventive cardiology. A cluster randomised controlled trial of a multi-disiplinary preventive cardiology programme for coronary patients, asymptomatic high risk individuals and their families. Summary of design, methodology, and outcomes. European Heart Journal Supplements. December 2004; Volume 6, Supplement J1.
2. European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice. Executive summary: European Heart Journal 2003; 24(17): 1601-1610 and European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation 2003; 10(4): S1-S11.
3. Murray CJL, Lopez AD. Mortality by cause for eight regions of the world: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet 1997; 349: 1269-76.


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