15% of deaths in India were due to heart diseases in 1990; now up to 28%

1. 15% of deaths in India were 15% of deaths in India were due to heart diseases in 1990- due to heart diseases in 1990- now up to 28% now up to 28% The number of people affected by cardiac diseases has doubled Cardiac ailments killed more Indians in 2016 (28%) than any other non- communicable disease, said a new study published in the September 2018 issue of health journal The Lancet. These are double the numbers reported in 1990 when heart disease caused 15% of deaths in India.Deaths due to cardiovascular diseases in India increased from 1.3 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2016, and more than half the deaths caused by heart ailments in 2016 were in persons less than 70 years of age, according to the study, ‘The Changing Patterns of Cardiovascular Diseases and Their Risk Factors in the States of India: the Global burden of DiseaseCardiovascular diseases are a collective of various kinds of heart ailments, stroke and diseases of blood vessels nourishing the limbs.

2. Of them, coronary artery disease, also called ischemic heart disease– symptomised by the hardening of arteries–and strokes account for most deaths.Ischemic heart disease caused 17.8% of deaths and strokes caused 7.1%, according to the study. Rheumatic heart disease, caused by acute rheumatic fever, now bears a lower disease burden in India: It causes 1.1% of total deaths. But India still contributes to 38% of its global disease burden, according to the study. The number of people affected by cardiac diseases has doubled, the study estimated. About 54.5 million people were affected by the disease in 2016 compared to 25.7 million in 1990. Hardening of arteries was more common in men than women while strokes affect both sexes equally.The study, which documented trends in cardiovascular disease in each Indian state over 25 years, described heart disease as “a major public health problem leading to premature deaths and disease across the states of India’’.A critical issue highlighted by the scholars, as we discuss below, is that even states where cardiac disease has low prevalence–mostly less developed ones such as Bihar and Chhattisgarh–are now reporting higher instances of risk factors. This indicates the need for policy intervention, said the authors of the study. Dorairaj Prabhakaran, cardiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an advocacy, and the lead author of the paper, put this cardiac disease crisis down to unhealthy diet, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and air pollution.Among these, five are major risk factors: Bad food habits (54.4%), hypertension (56.6%), air pollution (31%), high cholesterol (29.4%) and tobacco usage (18.9%). Among tobacco users, in 83% smoking was seen as a major risk. However, researchers observed a decline in smoking habits in all states. In most cases, the various factors overlapped. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease in 2016 was the highest in Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu–more than 5,000 per population of 100,000. Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa and West Bengal are close second with prevalence between 4,500 and 4,999 per 100,000.Wealthier and more urbanised states in India deal with higher risk of heart disease, said a June 2018 study by the PHFI and the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health. Cardiac risk increased with increase in wealth, particularly in rural areas, this study found. In rural areas, those living in the wealthiest 20% districts were associated with a relative increase in the 10-year cardiac risk by 13.1% compared to the poorest 20% districts. In urban areas, the corresponding increase was 4.3%. ARTICLE SOURCE- BS