India among countries with highest risk of stroke in young population: Study

India is among countries in Asia along with some in Africa with the highest risk of stroke among the younger population according to a global burden of stroke report published in the Lancet Neurology journalThe report showed that stroke could cause nearly 10 million deaths annually by 2050 mostly in lowmiddle income countries LMICs and cost up to 2 trillion per yearTaking into account population growth and ageing between 2020 and 2050 in high income countries HICs and LMICs the analysis indicates the number of people who die annually from stroke globally will increase by 50 per cent rising from 66 million in 2020 to 97 million in 2050The number of stroke deaths in LMICs is projected to rise sharply widening the gap with HICs by increasing from 57 million in 2020 to 88 million in 2050In contrast stroke deaths in HICs are estimated to remain largely unchanged at around 900000 between 2020 and 2050 This indicates that the proportion of global stroke deaths that occur in LMICs will increase from 86 per cent in 2020 to 91 per cent in 2050ldquoAsia accounted for by far the greatest share of global stroke deaths in 2020 61 per cent around 41 million deaths and this is forecast to rise to around 69 per cent by 2050 around 66 million deathsrdquo said Professor Jeyaraj Pandian PresidentElect of the World Stroke Organization one of the lead authors of the Lancet CommissionldquoThough smaller relative to Asia the number of annual global stroke deaths occurring in SubSaharan African countries will rise from 6 per cent in 2020 403000 to 8 per cent 765000 in 2050ldquoWe have to closely examine what is causing this increase including the growing burden of uncontrolled risk factors especially high blood pressure and lack of stroke prevention and care services in these regions Without urgent action stroke deaths in Southeast Asia East Asia and Oceania could increase by almost 2 million deaths from 31 million in 2020 to potentially 49 million in 2050rdquo Pandian addedImportantly the economic forecast indicates the combined cost of stroke including direct costs and loss of income will rise from 891 billion per year in 2017 to up to 231 trillion in 2050The bulk of these economic impacts are forecast to be felt in Asia including India and AfricaMajor risk factors of stroke were identified as high blood pressure diabetes mellitus high cholesterol obesity unhealthy diet sedentary lifestyle and smoking This was coupled with limited surveillance data on stroke risk factors events management and outcomes of strokeThe report recommended establishing lowcost surveillance systems to provide accurate epidemiological stroke data raising public awareness and action to improve healthy lifestyles and prevent stroke prioritising effective planning of acute stroke care servicesIt also called for introducing legislative regulations and taxations of unhealthy products such as salt alcohol sugary drinks transfats by each and every government in the worldldquoSuch taxation would not only reduce consumption of these products and therefore lead to the reduction of burden from stroke and major other noncommunicable diseases but also generate a large revenue sufficient to fund not only prevention programmes and services for stroke and other major disorders but also reduce poverty inequality in health service provision and improve wellbeing of the populationrdquo said Professor Valery L Feigin of Auckland University of Technology New Zealand and cochair of Lancet CommissionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever