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Article History

Received: 11 April 2025

Accepted: 8 August 2025

First Online: 29 August 2025

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable Polish legislation. It involved a retrospective analysis of anonymized data collected as part of a nationwide cardiovascular prevention program implemented by the National Health Fund (NFZ) in Poland. According to Polish regulations governing the functioning of bioethics committees — specifically the Act on the Professions of Doctor and Dentist [] and the Regulation of the Minister of Health on the Bioethics Committee and the Appeals Bioethics Committee [] — only studies classified as medical experiments require review and approval from a bioethics committee. Retrospective, non-interventional studies based on fully anonymized data are explicitly exempt from this requirement. In this study, no personally identifiable information was collected or processed, and the research team had no direct interaction with participants. All data were anonymized at the source, and the analysis was conducted exclusively for scientific and public health purposes. Consequently, approval from an institutional review board or bioethics committee was not required. The study complied fully with data protection laws and ethical research standards, and posed no risk to the rights, safety, or privacy of the individuals whose anonymized records were analyzed.

: Not Applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.