Jump to full article: Reuters, 2010-08-24
Author: Amy Norton
Intro: Large percentages of Mexican adults have risk factors for heart disease and stroke -- suggesting, researchers say, that without intervention, the nation's rate of cardiovascular disease will continue the climb it began several decades ago.
In a study of 20,000 Mexicans age 20 and older, researchers found that smoking and obesity were the most prevalent heart disease risk factors. One-third of men said they smoked, while half of women were found to have abdominal obesity (defined as having a waist size of about 35 inches for women, 40 inches for men). . . .
Smoking has become a substantial problem in Mexico, especially among men. And the younger population has the highest rates: Escobedo's team found that among men in their 20s, 38.5 percent said they smoked; that compared with 20 percent of men in their 60s.
According to the researchers, Mexico appears to be in between what are considered the second and third "stages" of the tobacco epidemic. The second stage is marked by an increase in a population's number of female smokers, plus a 50 percent or greater increase in the number of male smokers. In the third stage, those rates plateau and a slow dip begins in the rate of smoking among men.
So Mexico's smoking rates have yet to plateau.
According to Escobedo, public health efforts to prevent smoking, obesity and other heart risk factors among younger Mexicans are needed.
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