Conventional risk factors among newly diagnosed coronary heart disease patients in Delhi.

AIM To analyze the conventional risk factors among newly diagnosed cases of coronary heart disease (CHD) admitted to a hospital in Delhi, India. METHODS This hospital-based prospective study included 276 consecutive newly diagnosed cases of CHD in the Coronary Care Unit of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi. RESULTS The mean age of the cases was 49.7 ± 9.5 years, with the youngest case aged 27 years. The two risk factors present most frequently among the cases were inadequate physical activity and abnormal lipid profile. Just about 3.6% of cases in our study had a physical activity level (PAL) that could be termed as "active", with a large proportion (96.4%) having a PAL suggestive of a sedentary lifestyle. A majority of patients were found to be current tobacco smokers (53.3%) and 188 (68.1%) subjects were lifetime ever smokers. There was not a single case who did not have one or more of the risk factors. More than one-quarter (n = 76) had six or more of the studied risk factors. CONCLUSION Indians have among the CHD highest mortality rates amongst all ethnic groups studied so far. It is important to study the regional epidemiology of the cardiovascular events to allow for location-specific prevention and control programs.