Most people are under the impression that heart attacks only occur in people who are older. This is a misconception. Acute heart events also occur among young people - specifically those under the age of 50. Understandably, when such events occur, a sense of panic occurs.
This is called catastrophic thinking, a topic I had written about earlier. The solution to catastrophic thinking is to examine all the background facts before jumping into a conclusion.
This article is written to examine the facts around young onset heart attacks, with special focus on how commonly they occur. Links are included to my prior articles on related topics including CPR, treadmill test and heart-healthy diet. A summary is provided at the end.
A heart attack or acute coronary syndrome occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is suddenly impaired. This occurs either from a progressive narrowing of coronary arteries from atherosclerosis or from rupture or erosion of a plaque which was already present inside these blood vessels, leading to clotting, and blockage of blood flow. When muscle cells die from continued lack of oxygen supply, it is called a myocardial infarction
The INTERHEART study proves that the same risk factors are linked with heart attacks around the world.
Even though a heart attack is more likely to occur in someone with the traditional coronary risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hypertension and family history of heart disease, it can also occur in people without these conditions.
The focus of this article is to distinguish between these two categories of heart attacks, and attempt to estimate the odds of developing such a complication at a young age.
What percentage of deaths from heart attacks occur below 50 in India?
It is estimated that 50% of deaths from coronary heart disease in India occur below the age of 50. This information is published in the WHO paper ‘Burden of disease in India by National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health’
While this statement might seem scary, it is important to look at the big picture before jumping into pessimistic conclusions.
There are two caveats which explain this observation.
1) Unlike western nations where the average age of the population is in the mid-40s, India is a young country where the vast majority of individuals are young - with an average age of only 28.4. In fact, approximately 75% of India’s population is below the age of 40. As a result, the total number of diseases - including heart disease - will be relatively higher in this age group.
Naturally, the average age of a person with heart disease will also be lower in India. That is one of the reasons why it is often claimed that “Indians develop heart disease at a younger age”. This is somewhat like saying, “all people in India are 28 years old”.
Death reporting in India is not a uniform process. All deaths are not certified or registered. It varies between urban and rural regions as well as between states. Overall, most large hospitals are located in urban areas. Therefore, deaths that occur in urban settings are more likely to be correctly recorded and reported. In contrast, a death occurring at home in a remote village might not necessarily be classified according to the correct cause. Thus, it is possible that many of the deaths occurring in older age groups from cardiac causes are not included in this calculation.
What are the odds or risk of developing a heart attack by age group in India?
A landmark paper was published in 2011 by CR Soman, Raman Kutty and others in Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, looking at seven villages in Kerala over a period of five years covering a population of 161,942 people, examining 4271 deaths, classifying them as objectively as possible.
The authors have published the rate of coronary heart disease deaths in each age group,
The authors report that the chance of death from coronary heart disease in the age group 35 to 44 years was 59 per 100,000 persons among men, and 17 per 100,000 for women. From the table, it can be seen that this rate increases with each decade. This proves that the chance of developing a heart attack increases with age.
THE END
BY
YUVANZ
..
You must be logged in to post a comment.