50 per cent heart attacks happens in Indians below 50 years: Study

India Health Link (IHL) has conducted a study on Preventing Heart Diseases in Youth: Growing evidence of a link between Waist Hip Ratio (WHR), BP & BMI, and CVDs 

Studies have proven that cardiovascular disease CVDs affect Indians at least a decade earlier and in their most productive midlife years compared with the people of European countries. And the rising Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) is negatively correlated with the cardiometabolic risk. The emerging risks of CVDs are caused due to the lack of a preventive screening ecosystem in India. 

While speaking on a study- Preventing Heart Diseases in Youth: Growing evidence of a link between Waist Hip Ratio (WHR), BP & BMI, and CVDs conducted by India Health Link (IHL), Dr Sonia Rawat, Director, Department of Preventive Health & Wellness, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, said, “Prevention is better than cure to make ‘Swasthya Bharat’ (Healthy India). And in this direction, the quick screening IHL’s Health Pod is very useful because it provides preventive screening and is also helpful in clinical risk reduction. This ATM size Health Pod (‘hPod’) has been installed at our Sir Ganga Ram Hospital where patients get hassle-free screening with the instant report.”

Adding further on the usefulness of the ‘hPod’, Dr Rawat said, “This machine is also very useful for corporate settings because if they use it, the employees will get into the mode of regular screening, which will help them from falling sick as they will apply preventive measure, thereby reducing absenteeism at the workplace.”

On the rising risk of CVDs in India, Dr Rawat added, “If you have high WHR, you are at higher risk of CVDs. This is the time to come out of our faulty lifestyle and correct it holistically. We need to include more fresh vegetables in our diet, and take our meals timely. Increasing physical activity is also necessary because visceral fat is one of the causes that contribute to the increase in the incidence of CVDs. It has been observed that during COVID times majority of the people who died had high visceral fat and comorbidities.”

While presenting the study revelation on the growing evidence of a link between Waist Hip Ratio (WHR), BP & BMI, and CVDs, Dr Satyender Goel, Founder & CEO, India Health Link (IHL) said, “Considering the essence of screening to prevent the onset of diseases, and to fill the existing gaps in primary healthcare we have introduced a first-of-its-kind connected ‘human-centric’ Phygital (physical+digital) screening ecosystem, which includes the award-winning ATM size ‘made in India’ Health Pod (‘hPod’) for zero assistance automated vitals screening. The Health Pod also complements National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) as it creates personalised Health accounts and IDs in line with the ABHA account.” 

Dr Goel further added, “Through this user-friendly ecosystem anyone can get their screening done for 20+ metabolic vitals including BMI, SpO2, BP, ECG, MBC, Body & Visceral Fat, etc., within 5 minutes followed by an instant report, and become a part of National Digital Health Mission, because, out of 140+ crore population in India, only 21.9 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) IDs have been created as of now.” 

The study has brought out that there is a strong correlation between the increasing Waist Hip Ratio, BMI, BP, and the rising incidence of CVDs in the younger population. But in the study, one striking finding revealed that 80 per cent of hypertensive women are obese, and 67 per cent of them have a high Waist Hip Ratio. And overall, women were found to be more at risk of undiagnosed cardiovascular problems than men. 

Dr H K Chopra, Sr. Consultant Cardiologist, Medanta Moolchand Heart Institute, New Delhi Chairman, CME, Moolchand Medicity, New Delhi, President, World Heart Academy, Former National President, CSI, IAE said,“Persons having high visceral fat are more prone to heart attack and other CVDs. To fill the gap in preventive cardiology, quick service digital health kiosks like IHL’s hPod demonstrate to be a panacea in filling the primary and preventive care gap in India, creating digital health records for the population in the informal sector. The award-winning IHL’s Health Pod (‘hPod’) is a unique self-service ATM size machine to test 20+ metabolic vitals, including BMI, SpO2, BP, ECG, MBC, Body & Visceral Fat, etc., within 5 minutes with the instant report without any paramedic assistance.”