How Can We Expand Knowledge to Improve Women's Cardiovascular Health in Latin America?

Abstract

is characterized by enormous cultural diversity due to its multiplicity of languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, and countless indigenous languages), ethnicities (white, black, indigenous), beliefs, climates, religions, and customs. This variability is observed between countries and within each country in the region, making them unique, even though they share a geographic area and numerous historical facts. 1 There is evidence that the epidemiological and nutritional transition has been more heterogeneous in LA than in other areas of the world, which contributes to a significant variability between countries and their subregions not only in the prevalence of different cardiovascular (CV) risk factors (RFs), but in CV mortality as well. Currently, 51% of the 659 744 000 inhabitants (UN, 2022) are women in LA and the Caribbean. 1 According to the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2021, the leading causes of death in Latin American women in 2021 were related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced life expectancy in the region by approximately three years, more markedly in LA and the Caribbean (Figure 1). Regarding noncommunicable diseases (NCD), peculiarities in the death rates per 100 000 inhabitants in LA and the Caribbean, and in Southern LA were observed in 2021. CV disease, followed by neoplasms, is responsible for the highest death rates per 100 000 inhabitants in the Caribbean, Tropical LA, and Southern LA, where this ranking is inverse in Chile. Diabetes and kidney diseases, followed by CVD, account for the highest death rates per 100 000 inhabitants in Central LA. In contrast, neoplasms, followed by mental illnesses, predominate in Andean LA. 2