Cardiovascular disease is still widely seen as an older person’s condition. Yet across Europe, thousands of young people are living with congenital, inherited, and early-onset cardiovascular diseases (CVD), while navigating education, work, relationships, and major life transitions alongside complex and often lifelong health needs.
Young Hearts in Action is a new European Heart Network (EHN) policy recommendations publication, developed by the EHN Young Hearts Task Force, a group of young people from across Europe living with diverse cardiovascular conditions. The Task Force was established to bring together lived experience across countries, diagnoses, and life situations, and to translate these insights into concrete recommendations for policy, practice, and research.
The recommendations directly build on the welcome ambition of the Safe Hearts Plan, which recognises that protecting people from cardiovascular disease must start early in life. While this commitment marks a critical step forward, Young Hearts in Action shows what early protection means in practice—through the eyes of young people already living with CVD.
The publication complements the Safe Hearts Plan by identifying priority actions needed to ensure that Europe’s life-course approach to cardiovascular health genuinely reflects the realities of young patients.
These EHN policy recommendations take a deliberately comprehensive and inclusive approach. Rather than focusing on individual diagnoses in isolation, the Young Hearts Task Force identified shared challenges that affect young people with CVD collectively, recognising that while each condition carries its own medical and psychosocial complexities, many barriers are systemic and recurring.
Drawing on evidence and real-world examples from across cardiovascular conditions, the recommendations highlight common gaps affecting young people’s lives, including:
By identifying patterns and parallels across conditions, Young Hearts in Action helps translate the Safe Hearts Plan’s life-course vision into actionable priorities for health systems, services, and policies.
With the publication of Young Hearts in Action: EHN Policy Recommendations, alongside the Safe Hearts Plan, the European Heart Network is committed to moving from recommendations to real-world impact.
We invite clinicians, policymakers, researchers, employers, patient organisations, and other stakeholders to join forces with us. Together, we want to:
Young hearts cannot wait. If we want a healthier cardiovascular future for Europe, we must start by listening and – acting – now.
Get involved. Share your expertise. Help turn young patients’ lived experience into lasting policy and system change.
To learn more, please contact Mehitabel Holler, EHN Patients and Research Manager, at mholler@ehnheart.org