Cardiovascular disease

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is today the leading cause of death worldwide surpassing all forms of cancer combined, and has resulted in a great deal of research on risk reduction and prevention with an increased emphasis on preventing atherosclerosis by modifying risk factors, such as healthy eating, exercise and avoidance of smoking. Research has focused on the general population and little is known about the population with intellectual disability (ID) (Draheim, 2006). Method: A search in MEDLINE (1967–2008) was made to find studies on the association between intellectual disabilities and cardiovascular disease. A search strategy also included the MeSH terms mental retardation and cardiovascular diseases together with a hand search of journals and other material relevant to ID. Results: A Google Scholar search for cardiovascular disease and mental retardation found 41 papers, while for cardiovascular disease and intellectual disability we found only 4 papers. The MEDLINE/PubMed search for cardiovascular disease and mental retardation yielded 12 papers, while cardiovascular disease and intellectual disability resulted in 3 papers (see Table 6.1). All abstracts were read and relevant articles inspected in more detail and used for this chapter. Discussion: Congenital heart disease Congenital heart disease (CHD) refers to disease that develops before birth (problems with the heart muscle, chambers or valves), such as coarctation of the aorta, atrial or ventricular septal defect. Some are apparent at birth, while others will only be detected later in life.