Nearly 3.5 million cases of heart disease and stroke could be prevented, and UKP 68 billion saved in health and social care costs over a period of 25 years, if every adult in England at high risk of cardiovascular disease were diagnosed and treated, suggests an economic analysis.The analysis was published in the online journal BMJ Open.
Picking up all undiagnosed cases of diabetes would accrue the largest overall health and financial benefits, calculate the researchers.
There are more than 1.8 million people in England on the coronary heart disease register and more than one million on the stroke or mini-stroke (TIA) register.
Cardiovascular disease is estimated to have cost the UK economy around UKP 23.3bn (Euro 26 bn), overall, in 2015.
As part of its strategy to improve cardiovascular disease prevention, NHS England has highlighted six high-risk conditions that are currently under-diagnosed and insufficiently well managed despite a range of available treatments and lifestyle modifications.
The six high-risk conditions are - high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), diabetes (types 1 and 2), high blood glucose, and chronic kidney disease.
Increasing diagnosis and treatment of these six conditions could improve health outcomes and potentially save substantial sums, but to date, the potential benefits haven't been quantified, say the researchers.
To rectify this, the researchers estimated the total cost savings and health improvements that might be achieved if all adults with one or more of these high-risk conditions in England were diagnosed and treated to current standards of care, or in accordance with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.