Every year, cardiovascular diseases are the cause of 17.9 million cases of premature death, while by 2030, it is expected that 23.6 million people will die from these diseases. These are the figures projected by the World Health Organization (WHO), in which case it is expected that CVD will become the main cause of death worldwide.

The most frequent risk factors for the appearance of CVD that are the result of human behavior and actions include smoking, lack of physical activity, consumption of unhealthy food and alcohol consumption, which cause four essential metabolic changes/ physiological: high blood pressure, overweight/obesity, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol. A large number of deaths are due to smoking, which increases the risk of death from coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease by 2-3 times. The risk also increases with age and is greater in women than in men.

In the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019, 10,586 people died from circulatory system diseases with a mortality rate of 509.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, of which 5,166 were men, while 5,420 were women. Diseases of the blood circulation system take part in 51.8% of the total mortality and occupy the first place in the structure of the causes of death.