Women all over India equally at risk of heart diseases: SRL Analysis

New Delhi: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally and are the leading cause of death in India also. The most common tests that are done to check the risk of CVD are the lipid tests. The general knowledge is that CVD is more prevalent in men than in women and South Asian men encountering a heart attack are at least 5 years younger than women on an average. A recent analysis done by SRL Diagnostics on lipid tests results showed that more than 41% of women had an abnormal lipid profile, which revealed an alarming fact that women in India are also prone to cardiovascular diseases.

The analysis is based on more than 3.3 million lipid profile tests performed at SRL Labs across India during the period of 2014-2016.

For the analysis purpose, SRL divided the samples received from across the country into four zones- East, West, North and South. The reports reveals that the two zones (North - 33.11% and East – 35.67%) in India showed higher abnormal levels of triglycerides while low HDL and high total cholesterol levels were more commonly seen in South (34.15%) and West zones (31.90%) of India.

A lipid profile measures the amount of cholesterol present in lipid carrier proteins like Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) etc and fats (triglyceride) present in the blood. High total cholesterol levels usually don’t cause any symptoms but can lead to thickening or blocking of arteries which ultimately lead to cardiovascular problems like angina, heart attack or stroke. Therefore, lipid levels are one of the most prescribed blood tests worldwide. Not only for measuring risk of CVD, lipid tests are regularly used to initiate and manage therapy of cholesterol lowering drugs also.

The study also revealed the following facts -:
1. The age-group of 46-60 years considered the most vulnerable period for CVDs in women also had the highest level of abnormality (48%) in the lipid profile tests.
2. Overall high triglycerides were the most commonly seen abnormality (~32%) in women.
3. The two zones (North - 33.11% and East – 35.67%) showed higher abnormal levels of triglycerides compared with other two zones
4. More cases of abnormal HDL were seen in women from South Zone, while Western Zone women had maximum level of abnormality in total cholesterol levels (31.90%).