Younger Adults Are More Prone to Die Due to Heart Diseases Than Elderly

Young women are still at a risk of dying due to heart diseases than men, says a new study.Analysis was conducted over the death rates in the group of 25 and older from the periods of 1979-1989, 1990-1999 and 2000-2011. Deaths rates in adults in the age of 65 and above declined drastically over the decades since 2000.

In contrast, men and women under age 55 showed clear declines in annual death rates between 1979 and 1989. It was lowered to 4.6 percent in women and 5.5 percent in men but then improvement slowed. The annual change in death rates in young women showed no improvement between 1990 and 1999 and has only fallen one percent since 2000. Death rates in young men fell 1.2 percent between 1990 and 1999 and 1.8 percent since 2000.

“We think that these trends are not related to differences in treatment and hospitalization, but rather to a lack of effective preventive strategies for young people, particularly women. This population has not been studied as much as older groups, partially because they are generally considered to be at low risk. There is an urgent need for more research.” said Dr Viola Vaccarino, Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Some reports suggest that diabetes and obesity may pose a greater heart disease risk in younger women than in other groups, and women need to become more aware of the heart risks of these conditions,” said Vaccarino.

“Non-traditional risk factors may be especially important in the younger age group. For example, in other research we and others have done, factors such as stress and depression are particularly common among young women with early-onset heart disease, and are powerful predictors of heart disease or its progression in this group,” he added.

Source-Medindia