Factors Influencing the Incidence of Heart Disease

Introduction: Understanding the causes of heart disease is a relatively new field in medicine. In fact, heart disease was relatively rare before the early 1900s. Aim: The aim of this review study is to investigate the risk factors associated with the development of heart disease and its prevention. Material Methodology: A scrutinized review of the Greek and international literature was carried out. The material of the study was manuscripts on the subject found in Greek and international electronic databases such as: Google Scholar, Mednet, PubMed and the Association of Hellenic Academic libraries (HEAL-Link). Results: The risk factors for the development of heart disease are metabolic factors, i.e., hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and obesity; environmental factors, i.e., smoking, lack of physical activity or exercise, poor dietary patterns and alcohol consumption; and other factors such as age, gender, heredity, socioeconomic status and psychological factors. Conclusions: Heart diseases are multifactorial diseases and the only way to successfully treat them is to take into account all the risk factors for their development, and to treat them systematically.