Fore­word

Valvu­lar heart dis­ease (VHD) is a sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic health issue, par­tic­u­lar­ly among old­er peo­ple. Despite being treat­able and reversible, it often remains unde­tect­ed and, there­fore, under­treat­ed. Fail­ure to detect VHD ear­ly and ini­ti­ate time­ly treat­ment can lead to acute health con­se­quences for affect­ed indi­vid­u­als and have longer-term reper­cus­sions for them, their fam­i­lies, and soci­ety.

Aor­tic steno­sis is the most preva­lent type of VHD in old­er indi­vid­u­als. It can lead to dis­abil­i­ty and death from seri­ous com­pli­ca­tions result­ing from a leaky heart valve or heart valve regur­gi­ta­tion, such as heart fail­ure, stroke, or blood clots. Sur­vival rates for indi­vid­u­als with aor­tic steno­sis who are untreat­ed, specif­i­cal­ly those with heart fail­ure, is around two years after symp­tom onset. Aor­tic steno­sis takes a heavy toll on the health and well­be­ing of affect­ed indi­vid­u­als and their fam­i­lies. It also increas­es health care expen­di­tures, as treat­ment for acute VHD often involves hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, post-oper­a­tive care, and reha­bil­i­ta­tion. These med­ical costs borne by the health sys­tem and indi­vid­u­als can be avoid­ed with ear­ly detec­tion and treat­ment of VHD.

As many nations have pros­pered, life expectan­cy has increased, and so has the preva­lence of dis­eases asso­ci­at­ed with old age. Sau­di Ara­bia, despite hav­ing a young pop­u­la­tion, is expect­ed to see a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the pro­por­tion of aged indi­vid­u­als in the future. Tak­ing proac­tive mea­sures will pro­mote healthy aging, save lives, and reduce health care costs. Sau­di Arabia’s Vision 2030 strives to estab­lish a com­pre­hen­sive and effi­cient health sys­tem that pri­or­i­tizes the well-being of indi­vid­u­als and the com­mu­ni­ty. One of its objec­tives is to raise the country’s aver­age life expectan­cy from 74 to 80 years by 2030. With the cur­rent pop­u­la­tion above 60 years pro­ject­ed to increase from 1.2 mil­lion to over 5 mil­lion by 2030, ear­ly detec­tion and treat­ment of dis­eases such as VHD are cru­cial for pro­mot­ing healthy aging in the elder­ly by pre­vent­ing com­pli­ca­tions, improv­ing qual­i­ty of life, sav­ing lives, and effec­tive­ly uti­liz­ing health care resources.

Fur­ther­more, the pol­i­cy actions need­ed to improve aware­ness, diag­no­sis, and man­age­ment of VHD align direct­ly with Sau­di Vision 2030’s goal of enhanc­ing health care ser­vices and pro­mot­ing a health­i­er pop­u­la­tion, con­tribut­ing to a more pro­duc­tive and pros­per­ous soci­ety.