Young adults accounted for 24.2% of CVD cases in four Peshawar tertiary hospitals, with ACS and cardiomyopathy the most common subtypes, highlighting the need for targeted strategies, including smoking cessation and early hypertension detection.
Young adults aged 18-45 years made up about a quarter of all CVD cases in the participating hospitals.
Young adults with CVD were predominantly male and had a median age of 40 years.
Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) was the most common CVD subtype, followed by cardiomyopathy.
Overweight/obesity, hypertension, and smoking were the most prevalent factors among young adults with CVD, followed by dyslipidaemia and diabetes.
Compared with ACS, cardiomyopathy was independently associated with high heart rate, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes, and family history.
Smoking was associated with lower odds of cardiomyopathy than ACS.
The authors note that the cross-sectional design reveals subtype differences rather than causal effects, while supporting smoking cessation and early hypertension detection in young adults.
This study looked at three years of hospital records from four large public hospitals in Peshawar, Pakistan, to see what kinds of heart disease affect young adults aged 18 to 45. Of 8,650 heart disease patients, about one in four (24.2%) were in this age group. Most were men, and the typical age was 40. The two most common conditions were acute coronary syndrome (problems caused by reduced blood flow to the heart, 61%) and cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle, 39%). Many patients were overweight or obese (77%) or had high blood pressure (56.5%), and about 4 in 10 smoked. Cardiomyopathy was more often linked to high heart rate, high blood pressure, abnormal blood fats, diabetes, and family history, while smokers were more likely to have acute coronary syndrome than cardiomyopathy. This research suggests heart disease is a substantial problem among young adults in this hospital population, and that smoking and high blood pressure are common among them. Because the study only looked at hospital records at one point in time and only at hospital patients, it cannot show that these factors cause either condition or reflect the wider community. The authors say the findings support efforts in smoking cessation and early detection of high blood pressure in young adults.
Arif N, Khan I, Khan T, Afaq S, Ahmad B, Ahmad G, et al.. (2026). Patterns of cardiovascular disease subtypes and associated factors among young adults in Peshawar, Pakistan: a multicenter hospital-based cross-sectional study.. Future cardiology. https://doi.org/10.1080/14796678.2026.2739742