COMMENTARY Prevention of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice: The Joint British Societies ’ (JBS 2) guidelines

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents a signifi-cant clinical and economic burden to healthcare, accounting for at least 22 % of all global deaths.1 The financial burden is equally immense; the annual cost to the European Union is estimated at h169 billion, 62 % of which is directly spent on health-care provision.2 Given this significant health-care burden, there exists an enormous potential for risk factor mod-ification and preventative medicine. Ten years ago, the EUROASPIRE I (European Action on Secondary Prevention by Intervention to Reduce Events) survey of patients with established coronary heart disease (CHD) in nine European countries confirmed the substantial potential for cardiac risk factor modifi