A new study proposed by Dr. Kuo-Liong Chien, professor, Mr. Shih-Yung Su, PhD candidate, and Dr. Wen-Chung Lee, professor, of the Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, demonstrated that the trend of premature mortality with cardiovascular disease reduced by 27.5 percent and six percent in women and men before 2025 in the business-as-usual model. Only through integrated risk factor reduction programs, including smoking cessation, lowering prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, can the 25 by 25 goal — set by the World Heart Organization (WHO) for non-communicable disease (NCD) control — be reached. This research was published online August 7 in BMJ Heart Asia.

“This is the first study to estimate the 25 by 25 goal for premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases in Taiwan,” said Mr. Su, the first author of this study. “The 25 by 25 goal proposed by WHO is to reduce mortality from premature NCD death by 25 percent before 2025, and this study provided the answers about the critical questions as to how many people could be saved from death by controlling the risk factors such as the smoking, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia, and how much the prevalence of these risk factors needed to change in order to reach the 25 by 25 goal”.

Among men, the percent change in the smoking target (30 percent reduction in prevalence) was larger than that in the other risk factor targets, in that a 14.5 percent (range 10.6 – 18.3 percent) reduction would save 3706 (3543 – 3868) men from premature death. Among women, achieving the smoking target could help reduce deaths by 29.9 percent (23.9 – 35.3 percent). That was a little larger than the other risk factors, and would save 159 (145 – 173) women from premature death. To reach a 25 percent reduction in men before 2025, there needs to be a 70 percent reduction in the prevalence of smoking to reduce mortality by 26.2 percent.

This finding suggests that cigarette smoking is still the primary target in the prevention of cardiovascular disease in populations ages 30 – 69. Dr. Chien, Dr. Lee and Mr. Su also suggest that older people, especially those older than 70, should be included in further research and secondhand smoking should be considered as a component of the smoking target for women.

[photo: Dr. Wen-Chung Lee (left), Mr. Shih-Yung Su (middle) and Dr. Kuo-Liong Chien (right)]