Obesity has overtaken smoking as the primary cause of heart attack among young adults in Sweden, a new study shows.
In the study, which was published in European Heart Journal – Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes, researchers followed 44,254 people aged 18–59 after they suffered their first heart attack. The study is a registry-based study and was conducted with support from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.
The results show that three out of four young adults who suffered a heart attack had at least one known risk factor – most commonly high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, or obesity. Furthermore, the study shows that obesity has overtaken smoking as the most common risk factor in this age group. The reason is that the number of smokers has decreased, but at the same time the proportion suffering from obesity has increased markedly. For example, one in four suffered from obesity in 2006, and more than one in three in 2021.
— It is concerning that the proportion of people with obesity has overtaken the proportion of smokers as the most common risk factor among young adults. But it also shows that we can do much to prevent heart attacks by finding and treating risk factors in time, says Moa Simonsson, researcher and senior physician in cardiology at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, in a press release.
Difference between men and women
Men run a greater risk of suffering a heart attack compared to women and are often affected earlier in life. At the same time, the study shows that women who suffer heart attacks often have more risk factors, but also that they have a worse prognosis after a heart attack.
— It seems that women who have a heart attack need to have a heavier burden of risk factors than men to be affected. This shows that we need to understand more about women’s particular risks, such as complications during pregnancy, says Simonsson.