Smoking, obesity and a lack of exercise cause heart attacks in the UAE 20 years earlier than the worldwide average.
The 850 heart-attack patients admitted to Rashid Hospital in Dubai in 2013 were disproportionately younger than such patients elsewhere in the world.
Of those 850 patients, 40 per cent were diabetic, 40 per cent were hypertensive and 25 per cent had high levels of cholesterol.
Heart-disease patients in the UAE are also at least 10 years younger than in the West.
Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death, claiming about 17.3 million lives a year and about 30 per cent of deaths worldwide. It accounts for one in four deaths in the UAE.
Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart attacks and in the UAE more than 20 per cent of the population suffers from this disease. Similarly, there’s a high percentage of people with obesity and high blood pressure.
Another major risk factor for heart attacks was tobacco consumption: about 50 per cent of those who suffer heart attacks are smokers.
The high risk of heart disease in the region can also be attributed to a poor diet and the high consumption of fat and carbohydrates.
The figures were revealed during a “smart clinic” run by Dubai Health Authority at the first non-communicable chronic diseases congress in the UAE, held last weekend.
The conference tackled lifestyle diseases and highlighted an alarming rise in early deaths caused non-communicable conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory conditions.
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