[Trends in cardiovascular diseases in Bosnia-Herzegovina and some European countries].
In the last twenty years, the European office of WHO with its expert groups designated CVD as a problem of top priority in European health policy. The documents of WHO related to CVD, and their directives to member countries, are illustrated in this paper. The authors emphasize that according to available data, CVDs are cause of 40% of total mortality among the European population above the age of 75. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, CVDs are the leading cause of mortality in the last few years. The difference in incidence and prevalence of CVD among European countries is emphasized in the paper. According to the available data of WHO, the greatest incidence and prevalence of these diseases is in East European and Central European countries and the lowest in Mediterranean countries, with the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The evaluation of the present state of frequency of CVD in Europe and the projection of their trends in some countries until 2020 is given in the paper. An alternative projection of the trends of CVD in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including a variant of application of organized preventive programs, is presented in the paper. Illustrative examples of the effects of preventive programs in some European countries, and possibilities of their application in Bosnia and Herzegovina are presented in this paper. Cost analysis of the application of preventive programs and their effects on the reduction of number of people affected by CVD in the short period until 2010 and 2020 is also elaborated in this paper.