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Research
Finished Projects
Inequalities in coronary heart disease management and outcomes in Portugal
Financing Institutions: FCT
Ref:PTDC/DTP-EPI/0434/2012
Principal researcher: Ana Azevedo
Participating Institutions: ISPUP; Centro Hospitalar de São João, EPE (CHSJ,EPE); Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, E.P.E. (CHTMAD); Unidade de Investigação e Desenvolvimento Cardiovascular (UIDC/FM/UP);
Start date: 2013-07-01
End date: 2015-06-30
Summary:
Coronary heart disease is still the most frequent cause of death and disability worldwide, despite the decreasing trend in coronary 
heart disease mortality observed in most developed countries, explained by the overall decline in both incidence and case-fatality 
rates. The growing population of acute coronary syndrome survivors, often with significant disability and in need of continuous 
medical care, places a huge burden over healthcare services, social support infrastructures and countries’ economical welfare. 
Therefore, mortality indicators offer an incomplete picture to guide decisions regarding performance assessment, healthcare planning 
and prioritizing interventions, research and resource allocation.
Despite efficacious primary and secondary prevention strategies to control coronary heart disease, several studies showed that there 
is scope for considerable improvement in treatment uptake. Nevertheless patients are still treated too slowly and many are not 
treated at all in several settings and the reasons for this are consistently related to the same barriers, namely delays in diagnosis, 
emergency procedures and in the transfer to the catheterization laboratory.
In Portugal, there are differences in coronary heart disease outcomes by place of residence, and data from the national registry and 
from single center observational studies showed heterogeneity in the uptake of reperfusion and revascularization. However, 
prospective data is missing to answer some important questions, namely those related with determinants of adherence to evidence-
based optimal treatment particularly after an event, including those dependent on healthcare and on patient individual characteristics, 
namely socio-economic position, health literacy and social support. Portugal is actually recognized as one of Europe´s most unequal 
countries, and the impact of these inequalities on the access to and persistence on evidence-based treatment, and consequently in 
morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease, is not known. Successful long-term management of CHD depends on patient 
self-care, therefore the importance of identifying patterns of longitudinal evolution of adherence to drug therapy and critical time 
thresholds of change in behavior, taking into account the role of socio-economic position, health literacy and social support in 
morbidity and mortality outcomes.
In this project we aim to study the variation in coronary heart disease management and outcomes, taking into account the role of 
cardiological health care organization and of patients’ individual features, particularly those related with socio-economic position and 
health literacy, in urban and rural settings in Portugal. The final purpose is to identify inequalities and opportunities for better 
prevention and rehabilitation, and their determinants, in order to promote a fair and more effective individualized strategy for 
diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease.
This will involve two studies.
I. estimation of burden of CHD in Portugal, using disability-adjusted life years (DALY) according to the WHO methodology
II. Prospective cohort study of acute coronary syndrome survivors consecutively recruited at the cardiology departments of Centro 
Hospitalr de Sao Joao in Porto and Vila Real.
The team’s expertise in cohort studies and in the clinical area of research is fundamental for the feasibility of this project. Its 
multidisciplinary character and previous collaborations ensure the ability to accomplish this project which approaches important 
questions that previously available data do not succeed to answer.




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