Most heart attacks easily predictable

Virtually the entire risk of heart attack can be predicted and the impact of factors causing attacks is the same whether you live in a rich country or a poor one, a global study released Sunday showed.

Results of the study of more than 29,000 people in 52 countries, released at a meeting of the European Cardiology Society, showed that two factors alone - an abnormal ratio of bad to good cholesterol and smoking - were responsible for two thirds of the global risk of heart attack.

Other risk factors were high blood pressure, diabetes, abdominal obesity, stress, a lack of daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, and lack of daily exercise.

Drinking small amounts of alcohol regularly was found to reduce risk slightly.

"This convincingly shows that 90 percent of the global risk of heart disease is predictable," researcher Salim Yusuf, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, told a news conference.

"This is good news. It means we can do something about it."

The findings contradict current thinking that suggests that only around half of the risk of heart disease is accounted for by known factors. They also imply that creating awareness of heart-attack risk factors may be easier than earlier thought.

"The impact of risk factors is the same in every ethnic group and every region of the world," Yusuf said, adding that this means the message of preventing heart disease could be quite simple and fairly uniform across the world.

The study showed that smokers had a threefold risk of heart attack compared to non-smokers. Non-smokers who ate fruits and vegetables regularly, exercised three times a week and drank a little alcohol cut their risk by more than 80 percent.

Over 80 percent of heart disease occurs in low- and middle-income countries but data on risk factors in these countries has so far been scanty.