[Risk communication during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for lifestyle interventions in cardiovascular prevention]. / La comunicazione del rischio nella pandemia COVID-19: riflessioni sulla modifica delle abitudini comportamentali in prevenzione cardiovascolare.

ABSTRACT

Lifestyle is a cornerstone of cardiovascular prevention and the process of risk communication constitutes an important step to obtain favorable changes in daily habits. Nevertheless, there is no definite consensus on how health operators should provide information on cardiovascular risk, and several models have been proposed in different settings. The current COVID-19 pandemic - with related communication strategies to reduce the spread of the disease and morbidity - may offer an interesting opportunity to reconsider communication in cardiovascular prevention even though cardiovascular conditions are not communicable diseases, both COVID-19 and cardiac illnesses force a huge segment of the population to major lifestyle changes. This narrative commentary describes similarities between these conditions, mainly focusing on modalities of risk communication, strategies to counteract fake news, actions to enhance the expertise of health operators, and finally on new skills that could derive as a lesson from COVID-19.