CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES (CVDs)

Sept. 4, 2019

A study looking at the “CVD risk factors in middle-aged adults in 21 countries” has been published by the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) in The Lancet and presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2019.

Key findings:

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) remains the leading cause of mortality among middle aged adults globally. 55 million deaths occurred in the world in 2017, of which approximately 17.7 million were due to CVD.
But this is no longer the case in high-income countries, where cancer is now responsible for twice as many deaths as CVD. In high-income countries, people have started living longer, so deaths due to CVD have reduced, and more are now dying due to cancers.
Household air pollution is a greater risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in India than diabetes, tobacco use, low physical activity and poor diet.
At least 65% of homes in India use biomass fuel for cooking and heating. In urban areas, the use of mosquito coils, dhoop sticks and agarbattis contribute to high household air pollution.
Hypertension is the largest risk factor for CVD in low-income countries (which include India), followed by high non-HDL cholesterol and household air pollution.