In order to raise awareness of this pathology which affects 1.5 million people in France, Health Insurance announced on Tuesday the launch of an awareness and prevention campaign. This chronic disease affects more and more French people and causes a “deterioration in quality of life“, of the “repeated hospitalizations” and “death“. However, the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) considers that the number of people concerned is underestimated because “patients delay being diagnosed“.
The Cnam estimates that the number of patients should “progress by 25% every four years“. Against a background of improving life expectancy, heart failure increases with age, affecting 10% of seniors aged 70 and over. If this disease mainly affects people over the age of 60, “its incidence increases before the age of 55, as in other European countries, due to harmful lifestyle habits (smoking, sedentary lifestyle, diet)”, also notes the Cnam.
“Heart failure: what if your heart was trying to tell you something?”
Deeming this pathology too poorly known, especially among seniors, the Health Insurance will launch a national awareness campaign on September 25, under the slogan “Heart failure: what if your heart was trying to tell you something??, she says. As World Heart Day approaches on September 29, this campaign will be rolled out to the general public in the press, radio, television or on social networks in order to “improve knowledge of heart failure, warning signs and thus promote early diagnosis, by encouraging patients to talk about it with their doctor“.
“Unusual shortness of breath, rapid weight gain, edema of the feet and ankles, excessive tiredness“…Isolation, these symptoms are not”not specific to the disease but their association or their recent occurrence should suggest heart failure“, thus underlines the Health Insurance. They are to be watched especially after 60 years, in particular for people already diagnosed given the risk of”worsening of the disease that can lead to decompensation or even hospitalization“.
Health professionals (doctors and paramedics) will also be made aware by Health Insurance via their specific information channels.