Indians get heart disease 10 yrs before West: study

In most of the indicators,the percentage of people showing increased risk factors has doubled or even tripled between the age of 20 and 29 compared with the 30-plus age-group.

“The study was conducted primarily on the established theory that Indians get heart diseases at an earlier age. The study showed how early is early. The data has revealed that the risk increases mostly between 25 and 35 years of age and by 40 the disease is almost well established,” said Dr Rajeev Gupta,principal investigator,who is the head of Medicine at Fortis Escorts Hospital in Jaipur.

The study has evaluated major risk factors like smoking or tobacco use,obesity,truncal obesity (waist-hip ratio),hypertension,lipid profile and glucose intolerance.

The study was conducted in 2,051 subjects selected randomly between the age-group of 15 and 39 years during 1999-2002. The study was conducted in Jaipur and New Delhi.“All risk factors have shown exponential increase in the 30 to 39 age-group. It is more than double compared to age-group of 20 to 29. The study clearly shows that intervention to keep heart disease and diabetes at bay have to be taken between 15 and 30 years because by 39 the disease sets in and nothing can be done to prevent it,” said Dr Anoop Misra,former HOD at Medicine at AIIMS,one of the co-researchers.

The increase was seen both in women as well as men. While 7.6 per cent men were overweight and 1 per cent were obese in the age-group of 15 to 19 years,the corresponding percentage went up to 36.8 and 12 in the age- group of 30 to 39 years. For women,weight problems were found more pronounced. There were 52.1 per cent overweight women in 30-plus age-group while obesity percentage was 17.