The real cost of heart attacks and strokes is double the direct medical expense

The full financial cost of a heart attack or stroke is twice as much as the medical costs when lost work time for patients and caregivers is included.  That’s the finding of research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The study concludes that victims of heart attack and stroke who return to work are 25% less productive in their first year back. In the year after the event, heart patients lost 59 workdays and caregivers lost 11 workdays, for an average cost of ‚¬13,953, and ranging from ‚¬6,641 to ‚¬23,160 depending on