Cigna 360 Well-Being Survey Reveals Millennials More Prone to Heart Symptoms than Older Age Group

ManipalCigna on the occasion of World Heart Day under its 360 Well-Being Survey reported that in India 23% of millennials experienced symptoms in the past six months that indicate potential heart problems as compared to only 17% of those who are aged 50+. The primary cause of this disparity is today’s lifestyle. Changes in lifestyle can surely help heart health, but 1 in 6 people are hardly aware of the same or have done anything about it.

Two significant indicators of heart health are Body Mass Index and blood pressure. When surveyed about these two factors, Indians fared better than globally. Around 61% of the Indians are aware of their BMI as compared to 51% globally, whereas 76% are aware of their blood pressure ratings (compared to 66% globally).

However, when it comes to awareness about the potential heart symptoms, the Indians average score is low at 2.2 compared to 2.4 globally. Even worse, 2.3 heart symptoms was experienced compared to 1.8 globally in the past six months. Also, there is a gap in heart health education. 1 out of 3 people is not aware that blood pressure symptoms are easily curable with lifestyle changes. Also, only 38% of people use wearables such as smartwatch, etc. to monitor their heart health.

Prasun Sikdar, MD and Chief Executive Officer of ManipalCigna Health Insurance Company Limited on occasion said that in the past 25 years, there had been an alarming rise in the heart disease and stroke in India. Even though the millennials are aware of the BMI and have awareness about physical wellness, yet the increasing stress and laid back attitude when it comes to seeking professional help are detrimental to a healthy heart. It is necessary to increase awareness about healthy lifestyle for everyone, and not just for people with a health problem to reduce heart disease risk and improve the quality of well being.

There is a need for regular monitoring and measuring, laying the framework for lifestyle changes to improve health condition and inclusion of cardiovascular disease as part of medical coverage. These are some of the ways that wellness programmes can focus on to improve heart health.

Every year ManipalCigna comes up with The Cigna 360 Well-Being Survey to identify people’s perception of well-being across five key areas, i.e. social, physical, work, financial, and family. Now on its fifth year, the insurer has added heart health awareness topic to make it the most comprehensive survey till date. This topic was the key topic of the survey this time, and it initiated two major issues, number one the lack of awareness about the potential heart symptoms and number two that the heart symptom can be easily managed with lifestyle changes.