Testing at home--the screening of the future?

摘要

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are major public health concerns in modern society. Although mortality from CVD has decreased substantially in many European countries in the past 30 years due to better prevention (e.g. encouraging people to stop smoking and discouraging people from starting) and better medicinal treatment, CVD remains the category of diseases with the highest number of life-years lost. Due to sedentary lifestyles and unfavourable nutrition habits, obesity has developed into a new 'epidemic' with adverse consequences for CVD and DM. Type 2 diabetes is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular complications and mortality, with a 4-fold increased risk of dying from CVD compared to non-diabetic counterparts. Type 2 diabetes is now estimated to cause 1 million deaths per year worldwide. Randomized and controlled treatment trials have shown that reducing weight and treating glucose levels in diabetic patients is effective in reducing the complications of disease. An important question, however, is whether we can and, if so, whether we should take more effective measures at an earlier stage of the natural progression of disease.