One in every six Portuguese people over the age of 50 has heart failure, a number that has almost doubled compared to estimates from two decades ago, and around 90% do not even know it, indicates a study released today.
“We already imagined that we would have a percentage of patients with heart failure much higher than what was diagnosed 20 years ago, especially because the way of diagnosing has changed, the criteria have changed (…) and the population has changed a lot. But I confess that we were not actually expecting this magnitude of results,” the main researcher, Cristina Gavina, told Lusa.
The official also considered that these data show “a public health problem of a very considerable size”, which will have to change the way heart failure is looked at in Portugal.
The Porthos study, under the responsibility of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology, in partnership with NOVA Medical School, covered more than 6.000 people over the age of 50 registered with the National Health Service (SNS) in mainland Portugal and updated the 1998 estimates, which pointed out to a prevalence that was around 400 thousand Portuguese people with heart failure and which today reaches 700 thousand.
Stressing that the population is now much older – with more and more associated diseases that are directly related to heart failure, such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity –, the official calls for urgent measures to be taken for earlier diagnosis. .
Showing surprise at the incidence of the disease found in this study - which took place between December 2021 and September 2023 -, the specialist said that the results left researchers worried: “the Portuguese don't know because we're not diagnosing them either”.
“Family doctors themselves (…) often do not know that these people can have heart failure and cannot refer them to other, more differentiated places, where diagnoses can be made”, admitted the researcher, highlighting that these doctors they are “very limited” in the tools they can use to diagnose.
According to him, the tool used in this study to understand whether a person could have heart failure – in this case, an analysis of a blood marker – is not supported by the NHS.
“In common practice, a family doctor in Portugal does not have access to this type of exams, which obviously means that he is more limited in his ability to identify these people”, explained Cristina Gavina.
He recalled that scientific societies themselves had already identified this examination as a necessity years ago, but until now it had not been considered a priority.
With the data now revealed, “things change”: “It is more than obvious that these people need [to take this exam] when they present such suggestive symptoms, which include tiredness with exertion, starting to have shortness of breath overnight or your legs swell,” he said.
The specialist recalled that most of the costs linked to heart failure in Portugal are related to hospitalizations and that, at the moment, the disease is diagnosed at a stage where it becomes more expensive for the system.
“Here the key word is prevention, on two levels: one is focusing on controlling the risk factors that can lead to heart failure (..) and the other is being able to diagnose those who already have heart failure early”.
He recognizes that many of these patients “are those who already fill the wards today” and that this represents “an unbelievable burden on the healthcare system”.
A work published in 2020 in the Revista Portuguesa de Cardiologia estimated that the total costs of heart failure, due to the effects of demographic evolution, would reach 503 million euros in 2036. However, at the time the estimate pointed to the existence of 400 thousand Portuguese people with this condition. syndrome and the data revealed today almost double this value (700 thousand).
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