Cardiovascular Disease Awareness

About this course.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. It is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the United Kingdom, affecting millions of people and touching almost every family in some way. For anyone working in health and social care, a sound awareness of CVD is invaluable: the people you support are more likely than the general population to be living with heart or circulatory disease, to be at higher risk of developing it, or to experience a cardiovascular emergency such as a heart attack or stroke while in your care. Recognising the signs, knowing how to respond, and understanding how risk can be reduced are skills that genuinely save lives.

You will learn how the heart and circulation work, atherosclerosis as the process behind most CVD, the main types of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, aortic disease, heart failure), the scale of CVD in the UK, modifiable risk factors (smoking, diet, physical inactivity, obesity, alcohol, stress), non-modifiable risk factors (age, sex, ethnicity, family history), reducing risk through lifestyle changes, blood pressure, cholesterol and the NHS Health Check, recognising a heart attack and a stroke, the 999 response, and CPR awareness.