Heart attack survivors go on to suffer from other ailments

HEART attack survivors have a higher risk of developing other health problems such as diabetes, vascular dementia and kidney disease, research shows.

A study of more than 430,000 people who had suffered heart attacks examined their health risks over the subsequent decade. Researchers at the University of Leeds looked at their outcomes compared to a control group of two million people of the same age and gender who had not had a heart attack.

Heart attacks were found to increase the risk of heart failure and irregular heart rhythms, by 393 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively.

Survivors were also found to be at a 77 per cent greater risk of kidney failure and a 13 per cent greater risk of vascular dementia. Previous studies have shown heart problems can increase the risk of suffering other conditions, because they increase pressure on other organs.

Healthy hearts were linked to better brain health as vascular dementia is caused by poor blood flow to the brain.

The study found heart attack survivors were most likely to suffer heart failure, at 29.6 per cent, compared with the control group (9.8 per cent).

Kidney failure developed in 27.2 per cent of heart attack survivors compared with 19.8 per cent of the control group. New diabetes hospitalisations were 17 per cent, against 14.3 per cent among patients who had not had a heart attack.

The study, part-funded by the British Heart Foundation and Wellcome, analysed records of adults admitted to one NHS trust in England between Jan 1 2008 and Jan 31 2017.