World Heart Day 2021: Study Infers High Prevalence Of Cardiovascular Disease In South India

Across the world, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and 17.9 million people have died due to the disease in 2019, according to WHO data.

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Chennai: There is a high risk of cardiovascular disease among people in south India, and action should be taken at primary care centres in rural areas of the southern states, a study published in BMJ Open journal has said.

Untreated diabetes, blood pressure and related ailments are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The study on 'Risk factors for cardiovascular disease in rural South India' said there is a high burden of fatal cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, self-reported diabetes, smoking and central obesity are related factors leading to the disease. It concluded: "There is an urgent need to implement low-cost interventions such as smoking cessation and treat hypertension and diabetes in primary care settings.” 

The study was conducted by medical professionals Prabhdeep Kaur, Sudha Ramachandra Rao, Ramachandran Venkatachalam, Boopathi Kangusamy, Ezhil Radhakrishnan, Kanagasabai Kaliaperumal, Venkatarao Thota and Mohan D Gupte.

What Is Cardiovascular Disease? 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines cardiovascular diseases as a group of disorders to the heart and blood vessels. The group of cardiovascular disease includes coronary heart disease (damage to blood vessels supplying to heart muscles), cerebrovascular disease (damage to blood vessels supplying brain), peripheral arterial disease (damage to blood vessels supplying arms and legs), rheumatic heart disease (damage to heart muscle), congenital heart disease (birth defects to heart) and thrombosis (blood clots).

Across the world, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death, and 17.9 million people died due to the disease in 2019, according to WHO data.

Prevention Of Cardiovascular Disease

 Some of the measures to lower the risk of heart disease are controlling blood pressure, keeping cholesterol and triglyceride levels under control, maintaining a healthy BMI, following a balanced diet, doing exercise regularly, limiting alcohol consumption, managing stress and diabetes, getting adequate sleep and quitting smoking.

If these precautions are followed properly with regular health checkups then the cardiovascular disease can be prevented or postponed.