Cardiovascular issues higher in men, finds study

CHENNAI: The risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is comparatively higher in men than women, states PURE study, which was recently published in Lancet.

The follow-up study of over 1.55 lakh participants highlighted that the risk factors for CVD are basically the same in high, middle, and low-income countries including India. It’s titled ‘Metabolic, behavioural, and psychosocial risk factors and cardiovascular disease in women compared with men in 21 high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries: An analysis of the PURE study’.

One of the main authors of the study and senior diabetologist Dr V Mohan said, “In men, lipid markers and depression are strongly associated with the risk of CVD than in women. But, an unhealthy diet is one of the main reasons for CVD risk among women. In men, behavioural and psychosocial factors contributed more to the risk, largely driven by smoking rates which were higher in men than in women.”

The global study assessed risk factors such as high BP, obesity and diabetes, behavioural smoking and diet and psychosocial economic status and depression, without a history of CVD between the ages of 35 and 70.

“Women and men have similar CVD risk factors, which emphasises the importance of a similar strategy for its’ prevention in both,” said the paper’s first author Marjan Walli-Attaei, a research fellow at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).

Overall, women had a lower risk of developing CVD especially at younger ages. “Symptoms of depression were strongly associated with CVD in men. People are not aware of different reasons that need to be considered to reduce the risk of CVD,” said Dr Mohan.