Essex goes red to highlight World Heart Day 2022

As the World Heart Federation’s (WHF) only academic research partner we are marking World Heart Day 2022 by lighting up one of our landmark buildings on the Colchester Campus.

By illuminating the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall in red we will draw attention to the actions we can all take to prevent and manage cardiovascular disease (CVD).

CVD, which includes heart disease and stroke, is the leading cause of death globally and our Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing is leading work on tackling the worldwide challenges.

Institute Director, Professor Mariachiara Di Cesare, said: “Lighting up our Colchester Campus to mark World Heart Day helps us highlight the risk of cardiovascular disease and what we can practically do to address the causes. CVD is the world’s number one cause of death, but an estimated 80 per cent of those deaths could be prevented with early interventions.

“We’re working with WHF to use scientific evidence to support effective policy. High-quality data and information are key to understanding needs, trends, causes, responses, and prediction in global cardiovascular health. World Heart Day is a great chance to reflect on how our research community is playing an important role in the collection and analysis of the data to improve outcomes.”

Tackling global heart disease is the the aim of the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing’s partnership with WHF.

Essex researchers are supporting WHF’s new World Heart Observatory, which was launched in February, to collate high-quality data from different sources to provide the most reliable information related to cardiovascular conditions, risk factors, and interventions.

The University and WHF have co-funded a postdoctoral fellow to support the Observatory’s development priorities for 2022. They are reviewing existing sources of data, identifying new sources of data, contributing to data analysis and developing new ideas for research development.

The partnership is helping capture evidence to guide the policies essential to improve access to treatment, deal with the psychological stresses which increase risk and contribute to a healthier planet to tackle environmental issues which damage heart health.