Associations between essential medicines and health outcomes for cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Background National essential medicines lists are used to guide medicine reimbursement and public sector medicine procurement for many countries therefore medicine listings may impact health outcomes. Methods Countries’ national essential medicines lists were scored on whether they listed proven medicines for ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive heart disease. In this cross sectional study linear regression was used to measure the association between countries’ medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores. Results There was an association between healthcare access and quality scores and health expenditure for ischemic heart disease (p ≤ 0.001), cerebrovascular disease (p ≤ 0.001) and hypertensive heart disease (p ≤ 0.001). However, there was no association between medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores for ischemic heart disease (p = 0.252), cerebrovascular disease (p = 0.194) and hypertensive heart disease (p = 0.209) when country characteristics were accounted for. Conclusions Listing more medicines on national essential medicines lists may only be one factor in reducing mortality from cardiovascular disease and improving healthcare access and quality scores.

Global status of essential medicine selection: a systematic comparison of national essential medicine lists with recommendations by WHO

“…14 15 Future research continue to assess medicine listings on NEMLs by disease groups and for focused disciplinary as has been done for tobacco addiction, diabetes and heart disease among other topics. [16][17][18] Methodologically, we have used innovative methods including the ROC and F1 statistic that should be considered for future research on essential medicines. We propose that the F1 statistic be considered in analyses of EMLs in relation to the WHO MLEM, due to its ability to present a single measure in relation to the MLEM.…”

“…We use official listings, but our understanding of implementation of these lists to support access on the ground is still limited and further research required 14 15. Future research continue to assess medicine listings on NEMLs by disease groups and for focused disciplinary as has been done for tobacco addiction, diabetes and heart disease among other topics 16–18…”

New Thiazole Acetic Acid Derivatives: A Study to Screen Cardiovascular Activity Using Isolated Rat Hearts and Blood Vessels

“…Among the ailments, CVD is considered to be one of the leading causes of mortality in developing countries [ 3 ]. Different medical interventions that include several classes of drugs have been approved for treating cardiovascular diseases [ 4 ].…”

“…The chronic use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors has also been linked to kidney disease, while statins used to lower cholesterol can cause liver damage, renal insufficiency, and myalgias [ 6 , 7 ]. Even though many medications are available, the search for safe and effective therapeutic interventions to treat cardiovascular diseases is a major global healthcare challenge [ 4 , 5 ].…”