April 7, 2022 – World Health Day is marked under the slogan "Our planet, our health". This year, the data from a large European study reveals the prevalence and incidence of the most common diseases.

HRT reports on the situation in Croatia, where as many as one million and two hundred thousand people have hypertension, while ten percent of the population has diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These are data from the first such research in Croatia as part of a European project on the incidence of the most common diseases. This year's World Health Day aims to raise awareness of the impact of the environment on human health.

The most common diseases in Croatia are hypertension, chronic lung diseases, and diabetes

Hypertension, chronic lung diseases, and diabetes are the most common diseases of the elderly population in Croatia, according to data on population morbidity presented by the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) for the first time today on World Health Day.

These are data for Croatia collected as part of the Eurostat project "Morbidity Statistics", with the aim of determining the incidence of certain conditions and diseases as determined by the European Commission.

The collected data shows that almost a third of the Croatian population suffers from hypertension, and this share increases significantly in the elderly population - eight out of ten people over the age of 65 have some of the diseases in this group.

Chronic lung diseases also affect the elderly population, with data showing that one in ten people over the age of 65 suffer from such diseases.

The research once again proved a high presence of diabetes among the population: almost 10 percent of the Croatian population suffers from diabetes, with a rise to a quarter of the population over 65.

High prevalence of mood disorders, anxiety, arthrosis, dementia ...

Mood disorders (affective disorders), which were diagnosed in 6.6 percent of the population, also have a high prevalence. They are twice as common in women as in the male population (8.7 percent versus 4.4 percent) and are most often diagnosed in women over 50.

The situation is similar when it comes to anxiety disorders. They are twice as common in women as in men (16.7 percent versus 8.3 percent), and especially affect the female population after the age of 50.

Osteoarthritis has a relatively high prevalence - 10.8 percent of the population, ischemic heart disease - 5.8 percent and cerebrovascular disease - 2.9 percent.

The prevalence of dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) in the age group over 60 is 2.9 percent, with it being twice as common in women after the age of 70.

The reference period was from 2015 to 2017, data were collected from 1 March 2019 to 1 September 2020. In addition to Croatia, a number of countries took part in the project, including Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, and Poland.

The publication is the beginning of systematic data collection on the frequency of leading public health problems in Croatia based on prevalence (total number of cases) and incidence (number of new cases), not just on the use of health care, which is a big qualitative step in national health statistics.

“The World Health Organization estimates that more than thirteen million deaths worldwide, including 1.4 million deaths in the European Region of the World Health Organization are related to avoidable environmental factors”, said Primarius Iva Pejnović Franelić, MD, Ph.D. of the Croatian office of the World Health Organization.

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

April the 20th, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to hold the entire world in its iron grip despite the advent of numerous vaccines which have a high degree of effectiveness against the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, one Croatian county is currently listed among the ten worst regions according to the World Health Organisation's European epidemiological map.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County currently has the worst epidemiological picture in Europe according to the World Health Organisation and their European epidemiological map. Yesterday, there were only eight newly infected people registered in that particular county, which is currently under a local lockdown due to their alarming figures, however, it remains on the list of regions with the worst situation related to the spread of the virus, according to a report from RTL.

Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is the worst in two categories - according to the seven-day incidence (the number of newly infected people per 100,000 inhabitants) and according to the absolute number of newly infected people over the past seven days. What will happen in terms of the strict anti-epidemic measures in that county is not yet known, and as previously mentioned, a local lockdown is currently in force there.

This Croatian county therefore unfortunately leads with a seven-day incidence of 689 per 100,000 inhabitants, but some other Croatian counties are also performing poorly, in fifth place is Varazdin with an incidence of 530, while the sixth is Sibenik-Knin County in Dalmatia with an incidence of 527.

The seventh place is occupied by the continental Croatian Medjimurje County, whose seven-day incidence currently stands at 521. According to the two-week incidence, no other Croatian county has been listed among the ten worst regions in Europe. Sibenik-Knin County is currently in 11th place with an incidence of 1017.

For more on coronavirus specific to Croatia, including updates on travel, quarantine and border rules, as well as the locations of various testing sites up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section.