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AFRICA
Cardiovascular Journal of Africa • Volume 31, No 4 August 2020
S2
Worldwide, the leading cause of death is cardiovascular
diseases (CVD). Therefore, the World Heart Federation
(WHF) is committed in leading the fight against this
debilitating disease and its risk factors. Most premature
deaths caused by CVD are preventable and the WHF along
with heart organisations are working towards reducing
CVD mortality by 25% by 2025/30 in countries throughout
the world.
1
In 2018, the WHF approached the Pan-African Society
of Cardiology (PASCAR) to co-ordinate data collection and
reporting for a continental and national-level CVD scorecard
tool to be used in Africa. The aim of the Scorecard project
is to create a picture of the current state of CVD prevention,
control and management in 12 African countries feeding it
into a systemised assessment of cardiovascular policy on a
global scale.
2
The scorecard involves a core set of indicators with the
prospect of understanding the epidemiological situation
in each country under investigation. Furthermore, it will
assist in evaluating CVD prevention and management
programmes, identify policy gaps, and address advocacy
for particular policies or programmes.
2
Moreover, the
CVD scorecards are a useful tool to highlight limitations
on existing data and therefore contribute to strengthening
health information systems.
According to the experience of the WHF and PASCAR,
heart health advocates can best campaign for change when
armed with a comprehensive overview of the burden of CVD,
along with policies and services in place to address this. By
measuring the national response to CVD, countries are better
able to distinguish priorities, map progress and ultimately,
be held accountable for action to promote better heart
health outcomes.
Therefore the following objectives were identified to
achieve these outcomes through the scorecard:
• assess and visualise the state of national CVD prevention
and management programmes
• highlight progress on the path to achieving the sustainable
development goal target 3.4 [to reduce premature
mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCD)
through prevention and treatment by one-third in 2030,
and promote mental health and wellbeing] and motivate
countries to take action
The World Heart Federation and Pan-African Society
of Cardiology Cardiovascular Disease Scorecard
project for Africa
• identify key policy gaps and create a sense of urgency for
action needed at national and global level
• help prioritise specific policies or programmes to better
align resources to areas of need.
The scorecard comprises four parts with sub-sections.
Part A: demographics, which include data on the specific
heart organisation that assisted PASCAR; the country’s
classification according to the World Bank; life expectancy
at birth; the percentage of population living in rural and
urban areas; the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in
current US$; the general government health expenditure as a
percentage of the GDP; and the poverty head count ratio at
$1.90 a day as a percentage of the population.
Part B: the national CVD epidemic, constitutes the national
burden of CVD and NCD, which includes risk factors such
as tobacco use, hypertension, excess body weight, physical
inactivity, and diabetes. Part C: clinical practice and
guidelines, deals with the health system capacity, essential
medicines and interventions, and secondary prevention and
management. Part D: CVD governance covers assessing the
policy response and stakeholder actions.
In collaboration with the national cardiac societies and
partners in the 12 African countries, data were collected
and verified of which two country reports, Sudan
3
and
Cameroon,
4
have been published. In this supplement, we
present country reports for Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
References
1. World Health Organization. WHO Global Coordination Mechanism
on the Prevention and Control of NCDs. World Heart Federation.
[Online] 2020.
https://www.who.int/global-coordination-mechanism/world-heart-federation/en/.
2. European Society of Cardiology. Cardiovascular Disease Scorecards: Painting
the picture of heart health in Africa. ESC Congress News 2019 – Paris,
France. [Online] ESC, 3 Sep 2019.
https://www.escardio.org/Congresses-&-
Events/ESC-Congress/Congress-resources/Congress-news/cardiovascular-
disease-scorecard.
3. Mohamed AA, Fourie JM, Scholtz W,
et al.
Sudan Country Report: PASCAR
and WHF Cardiovascular Diseases Scorecard project.
Cardiovasc J Afr
2019;
30
: 305–310.
4. Dzudie A, Fourie JM, Scholtz W,
et al.
Cameroon Country Report: PASCAR
and WHF Cardiovascular Diseases Scorecard project.
Cardiovasc J Afr
2020;
31
(2): 103–110.