West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts | West Yorkshire Harrogate Healthy Hearts

Family Riding Bicycle

Together we can beat heart disease

West Yorkshire and Harrogate's Healthy Hearts initiative aims to reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease and save lives in in our region by helping to prevent people from having a heart attacks or strokes.

Our programme aims:

to reduce the number of cardiovascular incidents such as heart attacks and strokes in our area by over 10% by 2021
to avert 420 heart attacks and 620 strokes over the course of the programme
to save the local health economy £12 million pounds

In the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership area alone, more than 600,000 people are affected by high blood pressure (hypertension) - a leading cause of heart disease and stroke.

We estimate that 256,000 people (9.8%) have high blood pressure but remain undiagnosed, while 60,517 people have an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) and nearly 49,000 people have experienced a stroke or mini-stroke (TIA).

9.8%of people in West Yorkshire and Harrogate have undiagnosed high blood pressure

60,000 people have an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation)

49,000people have experienced a stroke or mini-stroke

Our vision for the people of West Yorkshire and Harrogate...

Each year, more and more people are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. This can lead to stroke, blindness and heart disease.

Each year, more and more people are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. This can lead to stroke, blindness and heart disease.

Our objectives:

Reduce the impact of heart disease and diabetes

Prevent the number of heart-related illness

Reduce the number of people experiencing heart disease by 10% across our area by 2021

People falling into a broken heart

The challenge

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main cause of death in England –and were responsible for 33% of deaths in 2010. Coronary heart disease and stroke accounted for the majority of those deaths.

In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, heart disease is one of the main causes of death, claiming an average of 975 lives each year.

Spending in our local hospitals for urgent care for problems with blood circulation was significantly higher than other similar areas. This suggests we could significantly improve CVD prevention and risk-factor management.