When Kristina Sparreljung started working at the Heart-Lung Foundation in 1996, her tasks were fundraising and building volunteer networks. Over time, the role grew to include project management, fundraising and marketing – and twelve years ago he took over as general secretary. The driving force was, among other things, personal.
– My father had his first heart attack when he was 39 and I was only eight years old. He was part of the generation that didn’t want to talk about it and just said everything was fine. But I walked around with worry.
– Then he died too early, so he no longer had time to see his grandchildren, says Kristina and tells us that her grandfather was also affected by an illness and died at the age of 70 as a result of a heart attack.
Kristina Sparreljung
Do: Secretary General of the Heart and Lung Foundation.
Age: 58 years.
Life: Stockholm.
Family: Partner and two children.
Personal commitment coupled with a great interest in medical progress has meant that she has remained with the organization.
– It’s a lot of fun to work in a place where you can have an impact on public health. “I’m really interested in research and have never found a reason to do anything else,” she says.
The challenges in cardiovascular care There are several of them, not least due to an aging population and more complex disease patterns. Kristina Sparreljung believes that individual treatment and care will be crucial in the future.
– People should be able to live healthily for as long as possible and then we have to adapt care to each individual. Socioeconomic differences make it complex, and care is also unequal across the country.
However, there are several positive trends. Fewer and fewer people are becoming ill and dying from cardiovascular diseases, which Kristina Sparreljung sees as proof that emergency care works and that we can better treat high blood pressure and high blood lipids.
– Fantastically funny and good! The hope with the research is to find people in the risk zone before they are affected. If you are ill, we want the affected person to receive the best follow-up care so that you do not become ill again, says Kristina Sparreljung and continues:
– The disease also affects family, friends, the workplace, yes, everyone around us. With more research we will be able to understand more and perhaps find differences between those affected and those not affected.
However, cardiovascular diseases are still present the most common cause of death in Sweden. In addition to the personal suffering of those affected by illness, they are also responsible for large societal costs: around SEK 60 billion per year. Lifestyle habits are central to improving development, says Kristina Sparreljung.
– We need to raise awareness that we don’t exercise enough and eat too little fruit and vegetables and that such lifestyle factors have an influence. We drive our children to school, taking the escalator instead of the stairs. Get off one stop earlier and walk the last part to get some exercise into your everyday life.
At the same time, it is also a question of knowledge – it is important to spread and increase awareness.
– There is great interest in these questions, many are training and training more. But at the same time, there are many who do not reach the level of knowledge about health and the effects of cardiovascular diseases. There we are tasked with contacting you with information.
She also sees challenges Because interest in health often only really takes off later, between the ages of 50 and 55, when the everyday puzzle has been solved. But younger people are also affected.
– I was sitting on the TV couch with a 32-year-old mother of small children when she suffered a serious heart attack, and we know that young people also suffer from cardiac arrest and heart failure, for example.
Are there any particular milestones that you are particularly proud of?
– That we are the main funders of the SCAPIS study, in which, ten years later, 30,000 people were examined and followed up with the aim of detecting the risk of disease in a timely manner and being able to treat it before it occurs. We were also able to increase funding for more research into diseases of the heart, blood vessels and lungs.
The Secretary General also takes off the National Action Plan for Cardiovascular Diseases, which the Government has commissioned the National Board of Health and Welfare to study. The aim is to prevent and treat diseases more effectively.
– We have been working on this for several years, it is an important step forward, says Kristina Sparreljung.
Facts.Cardiovascular diseases
Live in Sweden over 2 million people with cardiovascular diseases.
About 30,000 Every year Swedes die from cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Sweden.
About a quarter of all stroke patients today are between 20 and 69 years old, i.e. of working age.
One of three People who suffer a heart attack are 20 to 69 years old, the same applies to those who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest.
Source: The Heart Lung Foundation
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