Heart attack risk factors identified in Latinos

NEW YORK, Mar 6 (Reuters) The biggest risk factors for heart attack in Latin Americans -- obesity, high cholesterol levels, and smoking -- can all be addressed with lifestyle changes, new research shows.

''Interventions to encourage lifestyle changes that target those risks could have a large impact on heart attacks'' in Latin America, lead author Dr. Fernando Lanas, from the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, Chile, said in a statement.

According to the report, which appears in a special Latin America-themed issue of the journal Circulation, roughly 78 percent of heart attack risk in the region is due to obesity, high cholesterol levels, or smoking.

The findings stem from a sub-analysis of the INTERHEART study, an international study that looked at heart attack risk factors in all major regions of the world.

The sub-analysis, the largest study of heart attack risk factors in Latin America, included data from six countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Risk factors were identified by comparing 1,237 people who had experienced a heart attack with 1,888 people of similar age and gender who had not.

At the population level, obesity, high cholesterol levels, and smoking had the biggest impact on heart attack risk. At the individual level, however, persistent psychological stress and high blood pressure had the strongest effect, each raising the risk of heart attack by about 2.8-fold.

Diabetes had the next strongest effect, increasing the odds by 2.59-fold, followed by smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol, all of which more than doubled the risk.

As might be expected, consuming a diet high in fruits or vegetables and regular exercise had just the opposite effect, reducing the risk of heart attack by 37 and 33 per cent, respectively.

In a related editorial, Dr Sidney C Smith, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, comments that ''it is clear that a worldwide emphasis must be placed on changing lifestyles, and this emphasis should include nutrition, physical activity, and avoidance of tobacco products.'' ''Experience has taught us,'' he added, ''that only the highly motivated patients are able to make these changes by themselves and that efforts in prevention must be initiated among the young if we are to achieve major, long-lasting shifts in population risk for cardiovascular disease.'' Reuters BDP DB0914