Bangalore: It is well known that with changing lifestyles and diet patterns, Indians have become more prone to heart attacks in recent times.

Now, a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) on January 17, suggests that Indians and other South Asians have heart attacks at a much younger age compared to other ethnic groups because of higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The research, conducted across five South Asian countries — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka — revealed that death from heart attack among people in these countries occurred at least five to 10 years earlier than among people in other countries, including European and West Asian countries and the United States of America.

This analysis, called "Risk Factors for Early Myocardial Infarction in South Asians Compared with Individuals in Other Countries" involved 1,732 persons who had suffered heart attacks and 2,204 controls from 15 medical centres, including the St. John's Medical College, Bangalore; All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and the Government Medical College, Nagpur and around 10,700 heart attack cases and 12,500 controls from other countries.

Part of

international study

The research is part of a larger international study, called INTERHEART (International Heart Study) conducted across 52 countries involving around 30,000 persons.

Prem Pais, Dean and Head of the Clinical Trials division at the St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, who is one of the investigators in the study, told The Hindu that the message to be taken from the findings of the study is that awareness about risk factors of heart disease and the need to take precautions to prevent them should be created among adolescents and school-going children.

"The risk factors for heart disease included smoking, high cholesterol levels, hypertension and diabetes, which is seen among people in all countries, but among South Asians, harmful factors such as cholesterol and history of diabetes were more common," Dr. Pais said.

He added that the study dispels the myth that heart disease was a rich man's disease as at least 60 per cent of the Indian participants were from the lower and middle-income groups.

According to the study, the mean age for first heart attack among persons in South Asian countries was 53 years, while it was 59 years for those in other countries.

Protective factors

Protective factors were lower in South Asians compared to other countries — exercise (six per cent in South Asians, 21.6 per cent in other ethnic groups); daily intake of fruits and vegetables (26.5 in South Asians, 45.2 per cent in others) and alcohol consumption once a week (10.7 in South Asians; 26.9 in others).

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