Cardiovascular disease in the elderly: proceedings of the European Society of Cardiology—Cardiovascular Round Table
The growing elderly population worldwide represents a major challenge for caregivers, healthcare providers, and society. Older patients have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) disease, high rates of CV risk factors, and multiple age-related comorbidities. Although prevention and management strategies have been shown to be effective in older people, they continue to be under-used, and under-studied. In addition to hard endpoints, frailty, cognitive impairments, and patients’ re-assessment of important outcomes (e.g. quality of life vs. longevity) are important aspects for older patients and emphasize the need to include a substantial proportion of older patients in CV clinical trials. To complement the often skewed age distribution in clinical trials, greater emphasis should be placed on real-world studies to assess longer-term outcomes, especially safety and quality of life outcomes. In the complex environment of the older patient, a multidisciplinary care team approach with the involvement of the individual patient in the decision-making process can help optimize prevention and management strategies.
