Age increases and heart care decreases

The right treatments for the cardiovascular system exist but in Italy are not yet widespread for all age groups. This is what emerged from the International Congress of Geriatric Cardiology held in Rome and organized by the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the University of Florence, UniCamillus – International Medical University of Rome – and the Menarini International Foundation, with the patronage of the Italian Society of Cardiology Geriatric (SICGe).

The pathologies that affect the heart “required 60% of the over 65, with a peak of 80% in the over 85 years”, explains the Cardiologist Alessandro Boccanelli, Professor of Moral Philosophy in UniCamillus, who specifies that “with the standards of age drug prescriptions and controls are significantly reduced ”.

In over 85 years, undertreatment has been recorded and spread in up to 40% of cases, while under 70 years of age, untreated patients use 15%.

Nowadays it seems that it is convenient, as underlined during the conference Niccolò Marchionni, SICGe Vice President, from a clinical and economic point of view, to properly treat a patient of advanced age compared to a younger patient. This is because most of the elderly are subject to the care of various health professionals, therefore, they often have to switch from one therapeutic context to another.

Therefore, continuity of care begins to be a real request for a large part of the population that continues not to receive specific treatments for their cardiovascular diseases. By doing so, however, an endless vicious circle is created.

“Male patients treated – conclude Boccanelli – are hospitalized more often than others so, in the long run, we spend a lot to remedy inadequate therapies and diagnoses”.