PETALING JAYA: The National Heart Institute (IJN) has reported a concerning rise in heart-related diseases among individuals in their twenties and thirties, some of whom are experiencing heart attacks due to tobacco addiction.
Speaking at the World No Tobacco Day event themed “Protecting Children from Tobacco Industry Interference,“ the National Heart Institute (IJN) chief executive officer (CEO), Datuk Dr Aizai Azan Abdul Rahim, told a press conference, the findings contradicts the common perception that heart disease only affects older individuals.
According to Berita Harian, Dr Aizai mentioned his staff’s experience in treating patients at IJN shows a worrying trend of young patients with heart issues.
Dr Aizai also expressed concerns about the concurrent use of tobacco and vape, which could exacerbate heart health issues as their effects double up.
“We do not have the exact percentage of how many (young patients with heart diseases) but more men are drawn to smoking while women are more towards vaping as there are claims it could help with slimming down.
“Additionally, the increase in the number of heart diseases among young people may be attributed to increased awareness, resulting in more individuals seeking early treatment, thereby facilitating early detection,” he said.
He said that smokers are transitioning to vaping because the devices are smaller, easier to carry or conceal, and lack the smell of tobacco smoke, often having fruity scents.
“Therefore, we conduct programs like World No Tobacco Day to focus on educating, preventing, and supporting high school students to make healthy choices, understand the dangers of tobacco and avoid smoking.”
“Our goal is to protect children and teenagers from the tobacco industry’s long-standing tactics of targeting the young to get them addicted to tobacco early on and then switch from tobacco to vaping,“ he said.
In his speech, he cited the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022 and the Adolescent Health Survey 2022, showing a slight increase in teenage smokers in the country from 2012 to 2017.
Moreover, there’s been an upward trend in the use of e-cigarettes or vaping, with approximately 42.2% of teenagers using or trying e-cigarettes or vape before the age of 14, mostly boys.
According to the same report, there has been a decrease in cigarette use among teenagers, from 13.8% in NHMS 2017 to 6.2%.
However, there has been a significant increase in the use of vaping or e-cigarettes during the same period, rising from 9.8% to 14.9%.
