Cardiovascular risk assessment in South and Middle-East Asians living in the Western countries

Sahrai Saeed; Alka M Kanaya; Louise Bennet; Peter M Nilsson

doi:10.12669/pjms.36.7.3292

Sahrai Saeed Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4041-5019
Alka M Kanaya Department of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Louise Bennet Family Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University Malmö, Sweden;
Peter M Nilsson Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.3292

Keywords: Cardiovascular risk, Caucasians, Diabetes, Hypertension, Metabolic Syndrome, Middle-East, South Asians

Abstract

Nearly a quarter of the world population lives in the South Asian region (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives). Due to rapid demographic and epidemiological transition in these countries, the burden of non-communicable diseases is growing, which is a serious public health concern. Particularly, the prevalence of pre-diabetes, diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasing. South Asians living in the West have also substantially higher risk of CVD and mortality compared with white Europeans and Americans. Further, as a result of global displacement over the past three decades, Middle-Eastern immigrants now represent the largest group of non-European immigrants in Northern Europe. This vulnerable population has been less studied. Hence, the aim of the present review was to address cardiovascular risk assessment in South Asians (primarily people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), and Middle-East Asians living in Western countries compared with whites (Caucasians) and present results from some major intervention studies. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed to identify major cardiovascular health studies of South Asian and Middle-Eastern populations living in the West, relevant for this review. Results indicated an increased risk of CVD. In conclusion, both South Asian and Middle-Eastern populations living in the West carry significantly higher risk of diabetes and CVD compared with native white Europeans. Lifestyle interventions have been shown to have beneficial effects in terms of reduction in the risk of diabetes by increasing insulin sensitivity, weight loss as well as better glycemic and lipid control.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.3292

How to cite this:
Saeed S, Kanaya AM, Bennet L, Nilsson PM. Cardiovascular risk assessment in South and Middle-East Asians living in the Western countries. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(7):1719-1725. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.3292

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Author Biographies

Sahrai Saeed, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

MD, PhD, FESC

Alka M Kanaya, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

Professor

Louise Bennet, Family Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University Malmö, Sweden;

Professor

Peter M Nilsson, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.

Professor at

Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.