Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease

Información del proyecto

MONICA

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: BMH4961693

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de inicio 1 Junio 1996

Fecha de finalización 30 Noviembre 1999

Financiado con arreglo a

• Specific research, technological development and demonstration programme in the field of biomedicine and health, 1994-1998

Coste total € 0,00

Aportación de la UE Sin datos

Coordinado por

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
United Kingdom

Exploitable results

The WHO MONICA Project: Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease

Launched in the early 1980s, this combined local initiatives and funding from government agencies and medical charities with central co-ordination by WHO, supported initially by the US National Institutes of Health, and latterly by the EC BIOMED Programme. The study includes 21 countries, Australia, Canada, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Russia and the USA; the remainder distributed across all parts of Europe and involves 38 populations. It address key issues for epidemiology, cardiology and health services - the contribution of risk factors, (smoking , blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity), treatment and secondary prevention, to changing rates of coronary heart attacks, survival, and mortality rates. A parallel study on strokes involves half the centres. Monitoring of coronary disease and stroke began in the middle 1980s in men and women aged 35-64 and ended in the middle 1990s. Key findings, published May 1999, show that on average two thirds of the decline in coronary disease mortality was accounted for by declining numbers of heart attacks, one third by improving survival. Results for stroke were the converse. Papers to be submitted (late 1999) show major improvements in survival and mortality rates in those populations most effective in implementing new treatments (how much directly caused and how much indirectly is for debate), as well as an estimated one half contribution of the four risk factors to explaining population trends in coronary disease. By products of the study have been diffusion to the centres of best international practice in epidemiology, standardization of methods and quality control, the rapid adoption of best business practice in organization and communication through telefax, electronic mail and the internet, the establishment of an invaluable international research network, now working on further studies (with EC support) and the creation of the superb MONICA Data Centre in Helsinki, two major European resources.