Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease in India

Abstract

Prevalence was determined from clinical, epidemiologic, life-insurance and autopsy data from Delhi and other Indian states. Hospital data showed lower incidence than anywhere else in the world, with slight regional variations and higher incidence among private than charity patients. Limited life insurance data indicated lower incidence than in the United Kingdom (U.K.) Epidemiologic studies showed, in the poor, a lower and, in the wealthy, a higher incidence than in studies in U.K. and the U.S.A. Autopsy studies showed milder sclerosis and less thrombosis in Indian than in American males but comparable sclerosis in Indian and American women. Cerebrovascular disease was slightly more common than ischemic heart disease in men and twice as common in women; the reverse obtains in U.K. and in U.S.A. Serum cholesterol levels and fat and caloric intake, which were nearly as high among the Delhi rich as in populations surveyed in the U.K., and in the U.S.A. were lower in the poor. This was thought to be responsible for the lower incidence of heart disease in the latter group.