Inflammation in cardiovascular disease: Regional differences between Sub-saharan Africa and Nothern Europe

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and amounts to about a third of all global deaths. Decline of death rates for CVDs is faster in high-income compared to low- and middle-income countries. Also in this context, the contribution of risk factors significantly differs between Europe and Africa. The present project will address the regional gap in CVD between Nothern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa by focusing one of the critical hallmarks of the transition from health to CVD, namely chronic inflammation. The overarching objective is to identify regional differences in the link between inflammation and CVD, and its relation to cardiovascular risk factors. A three-step work plan consisting of (1) data collection from existing literature with data integration will pave the way towards the aim to identify and regional differences between Northern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa in the association between inflammation exposure and CVD. (2) Perform observations on CVD prevention in the Cape Town Area to put the collected data in a real-life context. The results obtained will be used to (3) leverage the acquired knowledge about region-specific inflammation as a modifiable CVD risk factor to a multi-disciplinary cross-pollination through the unique academic milieu at STIAS.