MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Italy is the first country in the world to have recognized obesity by law as chronic, progressive and recurring disease. A historic turning point that opens up the possibility of reaching another primacy: creating a reference welfare model in Europe, finally integrating cardiovascular prevention and obesity management into a single strategy. This is the message at the heart of Rapid Communication “Italy passes obesity law: an opportunity to preventive cardiovascular disease across Europe”, just published in the European Heart Journal – Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes and signed by researchers at IRCS Policlinico San Donato. “Our leadership position represents an opportunity and a responsibility. Opportunity, because today we have the scientific knowledge necessary to face obesity as a true pathology; responsibility, because the legislative recognition would risk to remain unfinished if it was not accompanied by a profound change of paradigm,” says the first author of the publication, Professor Alexis Elias Malavazos, Head of the U.O. of Endocrinology and of the Clinical Nutrition Service and Cardiometa “Cardiovascular diseases continue to represent the main cause of death in our continent and absorb approximately 282 billion euros each year in the European Union, of which 42 are burdened on the Italian system. An important share of this economic and social burden is linked to obesity, one of the major modifiable determinants of cardiovascular diseases. To act early means to intervene on the future sustainability of health systems. And, even before, on the health of people,” explains the Professor. In recent years, research has profoundly altered the understanding of the disease. Scientific evidence has clarified the role of visceral adiposity in inflammatory processes, vascular damage and heart remodeling, while new drug therapies have proven to improve relevant clinical outcomes and, in selected populations, reduce the risk of higher cardiovascular events. Among these, the results of the SELECT study, also recalled in the publication, have documented a reduction of 20% of the major cardiovascular events in patients with obesity or overweight and cardiovascular disease, but without diabetes, treated with semaglutis. Treating obesity properly can contribute directly to the protection of cardiovascular health,” said Professor Malavazos. “Science and law are proceeding in the same direction. But the real challenge begins now. The next step will be to build a welfare model consistent with scientific evidence, overcoming episodic and fragmented pathology management. ” According to the authors, the new legislation creates the conditions for a structured takeover of the pathology through the progressive inclusion of the dedicated services in the Essential Levels of Assistance (LEA), the integration of obesity in the National Plan of CronitÃ, the development of Diagnostic-Terapeutici Assistenziale (PDTA) multidisciplinary and the realization of a national system of epidemiological monitoring. It will be essential to define transparent criteria of repayment of the therapies, strengthen the network of dedicated centers, invest in the training of health professionals, develop multidisciplinary models really operational and monitor any territorial inequalities in access to care. “The value of this reform, which marks a historical passage, will not be measured by its symbolic reach. Only if we can transform legislative recognition into a gripn premature, multidisciplinary and personalized load, we will produce a real impact on the care of patients and the health of future generations”, concludes Professor Malavazos. -photo press office IRCCS Policlinico San Donato –(ITALPRESS).
