44% women with heart disease in Chandigarh are obese: PGI study

Sharing a study of Chandigarh women conducted over the past three years, Dr Neelam Dahiya, assistant professor, department of cardiology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, highlighted how cardiovascular diseases (CVD) posed a high risk to individuals with obesity, sedentary lifestyle, stress, hypertension and diabetes in India.

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Speaking at a continuing medical education (CME) event held at a city hotel on Saturday, she said among the total female patients, suffering from cardiovascular disease, around 15% were aged less than 50 and another 10% were aged below 40, which was an alarming situation.

"Risk factors of heart disease are much more common in women, and women with heart disease have worse outcomes than men. The long-term prognosis of women with heart disease is not good, as women who present with heart disease have 50% more chance of mortality," she pointed out.

"Obesity is almost a pandemic and is increasing in women as compared to men. Obesity leads to many diseases like heart failure, blood clotting and diabetes," highlighted Dr Rama Walia from department of endocrinology, PGIMER, who discussed the adverse outcomes and also management of obesity.

'Woman have poor awareness about heart disease'

The health experts noted that women also had poor awareness about heart disease and associated risk factors. Despite these known facts, knowledge sharing and awareness about risk factors from health care workers is also minimal.

Only 47% of the women were advised to reduce salt intake and less than 30% were suggested to quit smoking and consume a healthy diet, Dr Dahiya said.

"These statistics highlight the urgent need to create awareness about CVD risks among women and take preventive measures to combat this growing concern," she added.

Preventive clinic coming up

PGIMER is also set to launch a preventive clinic for risk assessment, where it will use risk estimation tools according to age, obesity, hypertension, activity level, family history, diabetes, etc., and offer interventions to prevent CVD.

Dr Dahiya also added that people with South Asian ethnicity were more susceptible to heart disease. But with an improved lifestyle, 80% of non-communicable diseases can be prevented.