Cardiovascular diseases responsible for one-third deaths worldwide

Representational image

New Delhi: This comes as an alarming threat to global health as a new study has revealed that one in three deaths globally is caused by cardiovascular diseases, heart diseases and stroke.

The researchers looked at the prevalence of CVD from 1990-2010 and found that CVD mortality first increased, then declined steeply with increasing SDI, only to plateau in the last few years.

In 1990, there were about 393 deaths for every 1,00,000 people from CVD globally. That fell to 307 deaths per 1,00,000 in 2010, and, over the next five years, decreased slightly to 286 deaths per 1,00,000.

From 1990-2010, the age-standardised death rate from CVD dropped globally, driven by improvements in high-income countries, but that progress has slowed over the last five years. 

In 2015, there were more than 400 million individuals living with CVD and nearly 18 million CVD deaths worldwide.

"It is an alarming threat to global health. Trends in CVD mortality are no longer declining for high-income regions and low- and middle-income countries are also seeing more CVD-related deaths," said Gregory Roth, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. 

"Risk factors for CVD, like high blood pressure, poor diet, high cholesterol, tobacco smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity, are common throughout most of the world," Roth added, in the paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

(With IANS inputs)