New Delhi. Premature or early heart attacks is when a man gets it before age 55 or a woman before age 65, said Dr KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India & MTNL Perfect Health Mela. The mean age for premature heart attack is 53–54 yrs.

Family history means whether any of the first-degree relative i.e. father, mother, brother, sister had suffered from an earlier or premature heart attack. Having a one-degree relative with a heart attack below age 55 increases the risk by 33%; two relatives increase risk by 50%. Family history becomes important because a disease that occurs in more than one close relatives can increase your risk of that disease.

If the disease has affected family members at an earlier–than–typical age, this may also increase your risk.Diseases that occur together within the family can also indicate greater risk –– for example, diabetes and heart disease.

Diseases within the family that don’t usually affect a gender may increase your risk. An example is breast cancer among males in your family.

Heart attacks in the young

Although coronary heart disease (CHD) primarily occurs in patients over the age of 40, younger men and women can be affected. Most studies have used an age cut–off of 40 to 45 years to define "young" patients with CHD or acute heart attack.

Advanced coronary blockage is seen in 2 percent of men aged 15 to 19. An advanced lesion is present in 20 and 8 percent of men and women aged 30 to 34, respectively, while 19 and 8 percent, respectively, have a >=40 percent stenosis of the left anterior descending artery.

In the Framingham Heart Study, the incidence of an heart attack over a 10 year follow–up was 12.9/1000 in men 30 to 34 years old and 5.2/1000 in women 35 to 44 years old.

The incidence of heart attack is eight to nine times greater in men and women aged 55 to 64 years. In studies, 4 to 10 percent of patients with heart attack are less than 40 or 45 years of age. In some studies patients with heart disease less than 40 years of age, women comprise 5 to ten percent of patients.