2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: Developed by the Task Force for cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice with representatives of the European Society of Cardiology and 12 medical societies With the special contribution of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC),
European Heart Journal, Volume 42, Issue 34, 7 September 2021, Pages 3227–3337, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab484
Frank L J Visseren, François Mach, Yvo M Smulders, David Carballo, Konstantinos C Koskinas, Maria Bäck, Athanase Benetos, Alessandro Biffi, José-Manuel Boavida, Davide Capodanno, Bernard Cosyns, Carolyn Crawford, Constantinos H Davos, Ileana Desormais, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Oscar H Franco, Sigrun Halvorsen, F D Richard Hobbs, Monika Hollander, Ewa A Jankowska, Matthias Michal, Simona Sacco, Naveed Sattar, Lale Tokgozoglu, Serena Tonstad, Konstantinos P Tsioufis, Ineke van Dis, Isabelle C van Gelder, Christoph Wanner, Bryan Williams, ESC Scientific Document Group
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) disease (ASCVD) incidence and mortality rates are declining in many countries in Europe, but it is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Over the past few decades, major ASCVD risk factors have been identified. The most important way to prevent ASCVD is to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout life, especially not smoking. Effective and safe risk factor treatments have been developed, and most drugs are now generic and available at low costs. Nevertheless, the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle is still high, and ASCVD risk factors are often poorly treated, even in patients considered to be at high (residual) CVD risk. Prevention of CV events by reducing CVD risk is the topic of these guidelines.