Excess coronary heart disease in South Asians in the United Kingdom

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7502.1223

BMJ 2005;330:1223-1224 (28 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7502.1223

Editorial

Excess coronary heart disease in South Asians in the United Kingdom

The problem has been highlighted, but much more needs to bedone

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Health inequality between ethnic groups in the United Kingdomis widening.¹ Death rates from coronary heart disease in SouthAsians (immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and SriLanka) have declined at a slower rate than in the indigenouspopulation.² Accumulating evidence shows that second and thirdgeneration South Asians seem to be displaying many of the samerisk characteristics that make them prone to coronary heartdisease as their parents and grandparents.³ The first publishedevidence of elevated risk of coronary heart disease in SouthAsians appeared as early as 1959—from a study based onexpatriate Indians in Singapore.^w1 Numerous subsequent studiescorroborated the findings. However, the topic of ethnicity anddisparities in outcomes from coronary heart disease in the UnitedKingdom has only recently been given the importance it deserves.^w2

We still do not have an explanation for excess deaths from coronaryheart disease in South Asians, but several . . . [Full text of this article]

Velmurugan C Kuppuswamy, research fellow in cardiology

Sandeep Gupta, consultant cardiologist

Whipps Cross University Hospital, London E11 1NR (sgupta111@aol.com)

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Rapid Responses:

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