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25 April 2024
The IIS Aragón organizes the workshop “Easy innovation in the healthcare field. CIR Methodology” on May 9
3 May 2024It is one of the results of a study by the Aragon Health Services Research Group (GRISSA) of the IIS Aragón, led by María José Rabanaque, professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Zaragoza.
The study analyzes the data of 557.999 patients from Aragon with diabetes, hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia
Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death worldwide, generates disability, reduces quality of life and has a high economic impact.
Aragonese with cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes, hypertension I hypercholesterolemia, they go to their doctor Primary Care an average of 10 times a year and 7 to the queries of Nursing. In addition, two thirds require care from other specialties, Nephrology, Endocrinology and Cardiology. This follows from the analysis carried out on the data of 557.999 patients, over 16 years of age, with these cardiovascular risk factors in Aragon, integrated into the CARhES project (Cardiovascular Risk factors for Health Services research).
El Aragon Health Services Research Group (GRISSA), lead by María José Rabanaque, professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zaragoza and researcher of Health Research Institute Aragon (IIS Aragón), has developed this project, financed by the Health Research Fund (FIS), whose main researchers are Isabel Aguilar y Sara Malo. In addition, the GRISSA group is made up of researchers from the University of Zaragoza and different services of the Aragonese Health Service and the Ministry of Health.
El CARhES project has been studying since 2017 evolution of all patients with cardiovascular risk of Aragon, thanks to the information obtained from data from the Aragonese Health System. Thus, every time a patient maintains contact with the health system (goes to their Primary Care doctor, picks up a prescription, etc.) an information record is generated. All this information is integrated and can be used, finally, by researchers, in a way that does not allow the identification of the subjects, fulfilling all the requirements for this very sensitive information.
High use of consultations and medications
The results of this study indicate that patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Aragon make a high query usage y drugs.
For their part, patients with diabetes have the highest use of sanitary services and the highest probability of hospital admissions y emergency room visits, compared to those with hypertension or hypercholesterolemia. They also have the highest consumption of medications.
In relation to pharmacological treatments, each patient with high cholesterol had prescriptions on average 6,8 different treatments in one year, as treatments for different health problems, while in the diabetic patients This figure was higher than 8,2. The 88% of patients with diagnosed hypertension were prescribed a medication to reduce blood pressure.
Aging and increase in cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is leading cause of death worldwide, generates disability, reduces the quality of life and has a high economic impact. The high frequency of its risk factors, together with the aging of the population, seem to indicate that Its frequency and impact will continue in the coming decades, with an increase in certain more vulnerable population groups.
The prevention of cardiovascular disease, both at the population and individual level, is a priority for current health systems. A better control of the factors that influence its appearance, such as blood pressure, smoking or obesity, reduces the probability of getting sick and, therefore, of suffer fewer cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or strokes, which would mean a reduction in hospital admissions for these diseases.
There are population groups with a higher frequency of risk factors and a greater probability of suffering from these pathologies. It should also be noted that, despite the existence of clinical practice guidelines, there are significant variability in the way patients are cared for. These differences or inequalities depend on the characteristics of the patients, the professionals involved and the health system. He place in which a person lives, his socioeconomic level, social environment y familiar, its edad or gender They can also help identify population groups that use health resources differently from the rest, and that may therefore obtain better or worse health results.
Source: University of Zaragoza