Cardiovascular Risk Management Must Always Consider Social Determinants of Health: Past Lessons, Data, Proposals and Challenges

Abstract

Traditionally, management of cardiovascular risk (CVR) has been focused on clinical factors, and this approach has advanced cardiology and improved patient outcomes for decades. Nevertheless, CVR is influenced by biological, psychological, economic, and environmental elements, as well by health systems. The broader background concerning the social determinants of health (SDH) and socioeconomic status (SES), a major component of SDH, upon noncommunicable diseases and CVR in particular has recently been reviewed in detail elsewhere.