YOUNG50 #Stay Healthy - Cardiovascular Risk Prevention

In the framework of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, as a result of the Extended 3rd call for Reference Sites 2019 launched in October 2019, 26 regional and local organisations have been awarded “Reference Site” status and one of them was Vilnius. Vilnius reference site consists of three active organizations: Centro Poliklinika, local health care provider, Vilnius University, the biggest university in the region, and Baltic Palliative Care Association, which works to promote dignity at the end of life.

It is important to notice, that one of the organizations – Centro Poliklinika, learned about this initiative from the Italian colleagues of the European Project YOUNG50 and specifically during the consortium meeting held in Padova (Italy) on the 6th and 7th November 2019. Lithuania, together with the partners from Italy, Romania and Luxembourg, is working on the cardiovascular risk screening program for active prevention. Risks detected in the early fifties may result in healthy aging and allow people to live an active and long life.

YOUNG50 perhaps is one of the most basic tools of modern public health and preventive medicine. It helps to identify patients early enough to provide treatment and avoid or reduce symptoms and other consequences, improving health outcomes in the elderly population. People can earlier modify specific behaviors, that are considered as risk factors (diet, physical activity, smoking, etc.…), in order to have healthy aging and increased quality of life.
In this sense, the YOUNG50 screening program turns to be particularly useful and it could bring a modern approach to a healthy lifestyle in our aging societies.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Europe and account for 45% of all deaths, causing over 3.9 million deaths every year in Member States of the European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these deaths, 1.8 million occur in the EU (37% of all deaths). Millions of people live with cardiovascular disease – over 85 million people in Europe, of which nearly 49 million are in the EU.