Chennai has become a city of ageing hearts, according to a nationwide survey released on Friday.
Grappling with high levels of ‘bad cholesterol’, the people of Chennai are among the most overweight in the country; with hearts that are dated several years older than their biological age, the survey found.
The study by the Indian Public Health Association and an NGO used the ‘Framingham Heart Study’, a heart-age calculator developed by Boston University and included responses from 1.12 lakh urban Indians aged 30 and above, most of whom had access to the Internet.
BMI numbers and cholesterol levels showed that 73 per cent of Chennaiites were either overweight or obese.
Among the 12 cities surveyed, Chennai emerged the ‘diabetes capital’ as well, with 17 per cent of the population suffering from the lifestyle disorder, when compared to the national average of 13 per cent.
What is worse is that across the country, 75 per cent of young urban males, in the productive age group of 30 to 34 were found to be at high risk of cardiovascular disease.
Women of the same age group had comparatively better heart-health, but their risk for heart disease shot up in the menopausal period of 50 to 55 years.
“We now know that heart attacks are caused by multiple factors — hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and smoking all contribute to heart disease.
Therefore, it is important that the risk of an individual to cardiovascular disease is assessed properly,” explained Dr Muthuvel Somasundaram, consultant cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals here and member of the advisory board of the survey.