In a study, a team of cardiologists from Northwestern University in Illinois analyzed health data from adult residents of South Korea and the United States. According to the researchers, more than 9 million individuals from these countries who experienced serious cardiovascular complications had one of four primary risk factors at some point in their lives.
What are these factors?
The factors include:
- high
- high
- (past or present).
Together, these factors accounted for 99 percent of all cardiovascular events that occurred during the long-term study, as reported by Science Alert.
Even among women under 60—a demographic group with the lowest risk of cardiovascular events—over 95 percent of heart attacks or strokes were linked to one of the aforementioned factors.
Researchers attributed the highest number of these events to high blood pressure. In both the U.S. and South Korea, over 93 percent of individuals who suffered a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure had previously experienced hypertension.
Thus, timely monitoring of this risk factor could prevent serious cardiovascular diseases in the future.
Cardiologist Philip Greenland, the lead author of the study, noted, “Our goal now is to diligently seek ways to control these modifiable risk factors, rather than getting sidetracked by other factors that are not causal.”
His team believes the new findings challenge claims made by authors of previous studies that the number of insidious cardiovascular events occurring in the absence of risk factors is increasing. It is likely that those studies did not account for risk factor levels that were below the clinical diagnostic threshold.
In a commentary, cardiologist Neha Padhyipati from Duke University, who was not involved in the study, emphasized its significance. The results highlight how crucial it is to manage risks before they lead to serious, potentially fatal consequences.
The study’s conclusions were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Photo: Openverse