Heart attacks is when the blood flow to a part of the heart is strongly reduced or cut off, causing death of heart muscle cells, known as an infarct.
Narrowing and hardening of the coronary arteries which supply the heart muscle is more often than not the underlying trouble. In some cases, a blood clot obstruct flow of blood; in other cases, the narrowing results from atherosclerosis alone.
A heart attack may be also caused by contraction of the coronary arteries. Increased cholesterol, homocysteine or triglycerides, angina pectoris and diabetes are all related
to a boosted risk of heart attack.
Prevalence of heart attack in general refers to the estimated population of people who are managing the disease at any given time.
Government agencies systematically execute surveys to calculate the rates of the disease. These rates are used as the population changes for many years, until a new survey is conducted and new rates are set. It is important to realize that the prevalence rates do not change every year until a new survey is carried out.
According to the survey conducted by the World Health Organisation, the rate of heart disease is generally declining and nowadays people have much higher chances of surviving a heart attack than they had earlier.
The most significant decline in the disease was noted in three Northern European regions: North Karelia in Finland, Kuopio in Finland as well, and northern Sweden. The decline is linked with a huge reduction in risk factors in the aforesaid countries. In Finland and New Zealand there was observed a decrease of seven percent a year. In the United States the decline was of six per cent and in Australia — of five percent. Research have also found that both males and females in Asia and Central and Eastern Europe had experienced major increase in the rates of coronary events.
Risk factors have been observed to be increasing, however, in countries in China, which has reported an applicable increase in heart disease.
Men in Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle (Australia), Warsaw and in some areas of Finland had the highest rates of heart attacks. Women in Glasgow had a much higher rate of the disease. According to the American Heart Association, one in two deaths among females in America is linked to the heart.
The most of heart attacks in females occur after menopause and the mortality rate related to
a first heart attack is significantly higher in females than in males due to the fact it happens at a later age.
Age is a meaningful factor that influences on the possibility of heart attacks. The prevalence of heart disease rises as people get older. Two out of three people aged 65 and older have been diagnosed with a heart disease.
Children of people who have experienced heart attacks are more prone to develop
it themselves. The blood pressures is higher among African Americans than Caucasians and, as a result, they are at a higher risk of heart attacks.
The risk is also higher among the American Indians, Mexican Americans, native Hawaiians and few Asian Americans. This results partly from higher rates of diabetes and obesity. Most people who have a strong family history of heart attacks have at least one other risk factors too. Family history cannot be fully controlled, just as race, sex and age.
Almost 5.52 million out of the 15.3 million deaths caused by heart attacks occur in developed countries. In developing countries this number is higher and reaches 9.77 million.
While death rates are going down in many developed countries, where heart attacks are responsible for 50% of all deaths, they are rising in Eastern Europe, where they make up 58% and in developing countries, where heart attacks accounts for 23% of all deaths.
There are lots of explanations as to why heart attacks are rising in developing countries.
Poor nutrition for mothers during pregnancy causes a low birth weight of infants, which is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
According to studies, short people are at higher risk of suffering from heart attacks. But, taking into account data from a 13 year follow-up of over 13,000 subjects, a study has now found, after adjusting for level of education and age, that people of the lowest height had no higher risk of a heart attack, in comparison with people in the highest category.
This means that height itself is not a risk factor.
These prevalence details explicitly show how inhabitants of developing countries, people with a strong family history, females and elderly people are more prone to suffer from heart attacks.
