Heart Disease: Stats, Facts and Trends in India
Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a group of disorders of the heart which include the heart and blood vessels. India has recently become one of the leading countries to experience one-quarter of all deaths in the country in a year. India has seen an increase in the number of deaths due to CVD in the past two decades. The contributing factors to CVD deaths include population growth, increase in ageing population, and a stable age-adjusted CVD mortality rate.
Facts
India has evolved in the recent past two decades. Due to rapid urbanization and change in lifestyle habits of people, has contributed to the growing burden of CVD. Diseases like diabetes, atherogenic dyslipidemia, consumption of alcohol, smoking, central obesity and sedentary lifestyle habits are considered to be the risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Another important factor is that people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are at higher risk of developing heart diseases due to tobacco use, lower intake of fruits and vegetables, and lack of optimal therapy which in turn, leads to poorer health outcomes.
Need for developing strategies like effective formulation therapy should be incorporated along with the implementation of evidence-based health research, prevention, control, treatment, and reinforcement of health systems.
Statistics
Ischemic heart disease and stroke are found to be among the major cardiovascular risk diseases which accounts for >80% of total CVD deaths.
Global Burden of Diseases study has reported that the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost due to congestive heart disease in India during 2020 would be around 14.4 million and 7.7 million in men and women respectively.
The stats have also figured out that populations living in rural areas will be affected similarly to those with urban populations. Even though the numbers seem to be less now, in the coming years, the number will continue to increase in the rural population, reaching around 13.5% of the rural population in the age group of 60–69 years.
The younger adults between age groups of 40 or above are also at a higher risk. The prevalence rates among women will keep pace with those of men across all the age groups.
Recent Trends in Cardiovascular Disorders
1. Morbidity and Mortality Trends
According to a study, it has been reported that in 2016, India observed 62.5 million years of life lost prematurely due to CVD. In which, diseases like stroke accounted for 6-9% and ischemic heart disease with 15-20%.
The death rates due to CVD in India have seen a rise from 155.7 to 209.1 per 100,000 between 1990 and 2016, which is possible due to the ageing population.
2. Trends in CV risk factors in India
The various cardiovascular risk factors in India can be attributed to high blood pressure and cholesterol, tobacco use, dietary exposures, and obesity.
Behavioural risk factors accounted for higher CVD risks. Dietary risks like low intake of fruits, grains, vegetables, and nuts. Consuming higher amounts of sodium, trans-fat, and red meat, tobacco use and alcohol has also shown to contribute to CVD.
On the other hand, metabolic risk factors like high blood pressure and high total cholesterol, followed by high fasting blood glucose level, were the second major contributors to the CVD in India.
3. Recent Trends Observed In Prevention of CVD
Primary prevention: India lacks behind in providing optimum therapy to the people who are at higher risk of CVD. To prevent the development of CVD India, it is necessary to device, scale, expand, and sustain a novel strategy that can help modify CV risk factors.
Secondary prevention: Cardiac rehabilitation is another important component that can be implemented to prevent Cardiovascular risks. Cardiac rehabilitation through traditional approaches such as yoga is more widely available in India. Yoga can serve a good prevention regimen, leading to improvements in all-cause mortality, CV mortality, and rehospitalization. Yoga is also greatly accepted in India as a cultural adaptation.
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