The INTERHEART Study: New data on global risk

Major risk factors contributing to the global burden of CHD include hypercholesterolemia (56%), hypertension (49%), low fruit and vegetable intake (31%), lack of physical activity (22%), overweight (21%), and tobacco use (12%). These risk factors account for more than 80% of CHD mortality and morbidity worldwide and 12.6% of the total global disease burden. 3 INTERHEART is a large, international, case-control study designed to determine the importance of risk and protective factors for CHD worldwide. 4,5 The investigators examined whether the association of any of these CV risk or protective factors varied by geographic region, or with ethnicity, age, or gender. INTERHEART found that regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity, a set of nine CV risk factors accounts for 90% of the risk of first acute myocardial infarction (MI) globally.