Addressing the Hidden Heart Failure in Mongolia; a Proposal of Heart Failure Patient Education and Disease Management Program

The prevalence of heart failure became a major and growing public health problem globally, with rising mortality numbers causing a great financial burden. In Mongolia, the hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases makes up 55% of all hospitalizations, and mortality rate of circulatory diseases was the highest nationwide, accounting for 36.7% of all deaths (S.Ariuntuya et al., 2011). However, there is still no formal research addressing the prevalence of heart failure in Mongolia. Therefore, this paper is meant to bring awareness of the problem of hidden heart failure in Mongolia, which might be contributing significantly to the cardiovascular disease mortality and health care costs. This paper describes the Mongolian health care structure and the high incidence of heart failure risk factors is identified. Moreover, this paper proposes to develop and adapt a heart failure disease management program, as well as the heart failure patient education program in Mongolia. It is important that Mongolian health care providers and health policy makers acknowledge that if a proper disease management plan is not adapted soon, the prevalence of heart failure will continue to increase along with health care costs. Mongolia needs more public health and clinical researchers addressing heart failure