Srecko Nedeljkovic
Year: March 17th, 2004
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Interviewed by: Blackburn, Henry
Abstract
Professor Nedeljkovic is the senior cardiologist of Serbia and widely respected as the first “invasive cardiologist” and the first CVD epidemiologist of his Belgrade community (as well as for his championship roles in international chess!). This interview consists largely of personal stories of field work in the several communities of the Seven Countries Study in Serbia; the impact of Ancel Keys and of the study on the academic community; the great loyalty and affection among the investigators. It reflects the grace and devotion of a long term and reliable collaborator, who at little personal professional gain, pursued the grubby work of surveys and mortality data collection over 4 decades for the study in a region torn by strife and marked by change. (Henry Blackburn)
Quotes
SN: I would say first that Serbia is a special geography, Caucasia, so-called Panonia and Danubia, and we belong with countries like Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia. So the study of Seven Countries was made in that region, I think, properly because incidence and prevalence of atherosclerosis, hypertension, and coronary disease were very frequent in the region.
HB: How was it that you chose those particular regions to study in Serbia? What was unique about the lifestyle that led to the questions there, do you recall?
SN: When Professor Djordjevic came back from Crete he asked me to go around from Belgrade and find a village because the Seven Countries Study is mostly rural populations and we tried to find a typical Serbian village. And we found the village of Velika Krsna.
HB: Black Cross?…
SN: Great Cross.
HB: Can I go back to my first question? How do you think this research has affected academic careers in Belgrade in your part of the world and academic attitudes about heart disease prevention?
SN: Seven Countries diet is very famous now in Serbia. I cannot miss any meeting without their asking me – these organizers are asking me to give lectures on the contribution of Seven Countries Study to health promotion in Serbia and that had a great impact on our health situation.
HB: Did the doctors pay any attention to it?
SN: Oh, yes. They asked me to give lectures in faculty meetings, especially cardiology meetings, in gerontology also.
HB: In public health, were there any movements for control of diet or blood pressure or physical activity or smoking?
SN: Yes, that is quite in vogue now. So the Seven Countries Study in Serbia had a great impact.
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