Table 1. Descriptive statistics characterizing the World Health Organization (WHO) dataset.

	No. of countries (total = 193)	No. of missing values	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Variables characterizing the burden of CVD
Age-standardized DALY rate due to CVD*	190	3	2988.8	1399.1	843.2	8614.2
Age-standardized CVD deaths*	190	3	349.5	141.3	103.3	832.4
Health system resources
Physicians†	179	14	14.9	14.1	0.5	64
Nurses and midwives†	179	14	36.5	35.0	0.5	163.3
Dentists†	174	19	3.6	3.8	0.5	17.8
Pharmaceutical personnel†	161	32	3.8	3.9	0.5	18.9
Hospital beds†	183	10	31.9	25.8	2	139
Total health expenditure per capita (US$)	193	0	957.1	1286.1	17	7536
Further health system variables
Out-of-pocket health expenditure (% of private health expenditure)	186	7	78.3	20.4	7.3	100

CVD, cardiovascular disease; DALY, disability-adjusted life–year; US, United States.

^*per 100,000 inhabitants;

^†per 10,000 inhabitants.