Job stress, long working hours key barriers to healthy heart, feel Indians

New Delhi: The basic requirements for a healthy heart are habits like eating well, regular exercise, getting a good night's sleep, etc.

But, what is really restricting a person from maintaining good heart health? Ahead of World Heart Day, the Saffolalife Study 2017 asked Indians what they feel is an obstacle to a healthy heart.

Long working hours and job stress, turned out to be the key barriers, according to them. Besides, 83 percent of Indians said they give in to temptation of food and 74 percent believed that healthy food is not tasty and hence can't be eaten regularly, said the survey.

Along with long working hours (80 percent), long travelling hours (69 percent) are also seen as a reason people are not able to do enough for their heart health.

The study was conducted among 1,306 respondents (648 men and 658 women) across Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. The study was commissioned by AC Nielsen among those who have been identified to be at risk of cardio-vascular diseases.

Many Indians (76 percent) cited job stress and home stress as reasons that come in the way of efforts to stay healthy.

When it comes to women's heart health, stress at home (75 percent) and job stress (77 percent) impacted over 70 percent of women. Among women, factors like "having to cook separately for herself if want to have a healthy meal" (74 percent) and "concern about what will others say" (65 percent) also came out as barriers.

(With IANS inputs)