The Cost of Coronary Heart Disease to Society

Authors Avatar

Shelley Barker 12RWW- Mr Arnold

The Cost of Coronary Heart Disease to Society

CHD is caused when the coronary arteries that supply the cells in the heart walls with oxygen narrow, this is called arteriosclerosis. This can lead onto a heart attack, caused when one of these arteries becomes completely blocked and stops the blood supply to the heart muscle; this can be directly caused by arteriosclerosis or by the formation of a blood clot, blocked the arteries. The causes include:

  • Smoking cigarettes
  • High blood pressure
  • Unhealthy diet
  • Lack of exercise
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • Stress
  • Family history of the disease

The cost of coronary heart disease to society cannot be viewed in terms of just financial, but also the loss to society of 140,500 lives every year, this figure is the number of people who died of coronary heart disease in 1997 in the UK. The figure in 2000 however had fallen to 125,000.

Coronary heart disease rates in the UK are one of the highest in the world and it is the biggest causer of premature death. In 1997 over 64,000 women and over 76,500 men died due to coronary heart disease, roughly 16 people every hour. The NHS spends over £1,750 million a year relating to  coronary heart disease, with 34% of this figure being spent on drugs and dispensing them and just 1% spent on the primary prevention of CHD.

Join now!

It is estimated that one in every four men and one in every six women die due to coronary heart disease, taking the whole of Europe into consideration, coronary heart disease is the single biggest killer, with nearly 2 million people a year dying.

As well as the NHS budget of £1, 750 million, a further £5,300 million is lost because of days off work due to illness, death or caring of people who have the disease; an estimated 70 million working days are lost per year. So in total, CHD costs the UK economy over £7,000 million per ...

This is a preview of the whole essay