…over 235,000 Nigerians die from cardiovascular diseases yearly
Rising cardiovascular diseases have sparked renewed calls for heart-healthy habits to be introduced early in life rather than waiting until adulthood to address the risk factors.
According to the Nigerian Health Foundation (NHF), out of 63 million deaths per year globally, 19.8 million are caused by cardiovascular diseases and over 235,000 deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria, stressing that many of the risks can be managed through healthier diets, regular physical activity, and early lifestyle changes.
The foundation disclosed this recently at an event marking the 2026 World Heart Day with the theme, ‘Healthy Hearts: From the classroom to the families.’
Kingsley Akinroye, executive director of NHF, said this year’s theme focuses on schools as a way of taking heart-health education to the grassroots, helping children develop healthy habits from an early age.
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“Nigerian Heart Foundation has directed the focus of the theme to bring the focus back to the grassroot and to catch them young hereby instilling heart-healthy values in the students from a young age to help them resist peer-pressure and any other social vice that may be implemented to indulge them in habits that are detrimental to their heart and their health at large,” Akinroye said.
He also said that 49 percent to 58 percent women of reproductive age in Nigeria are recorded to suffer from severe anemia, adding that 2026 has made the importance of healthy diets extensively obvious to Nigerians, with the rise in rate of consumption of junks, sedentary lifestyle, air pollution, alcohol and tobacco use.
“Cardiovascular disease is the world’s most urgent health crisis but is often overlooked by leaders. Without national action plans and universal access to treatment, the number of CVD deaths will keep rising,” Akinroye said.
Globally, the World Heart Federation (WHF) launched the 2026 ‘Don’t Miss a Beat’ campaign to draw attention to heart disease symptoms that can remain unnoticed until it is too late
The NHF stated that at least 80 percent of premature deaths from heart disease could be avoided if 5 (five) main risk factors including tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol and air pollution are controlled.
Akinroye said that heart diseases start at a very early age and accumulate over the years. “So why should we wait until middle-age before initiating lifestyle modifications to curb or cure heart diseases?”
He urged teachers to promote healthy diets and physical activity among pupils, noting that heart disease begins at an early age and accumulates over the years.
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“NHF is urging teachers in schools to help improve cardiovascular health through healthy diets and physical activity habits in students to prevent CVD incidence rates or mortality in Nigeria,” Akinroye said.
Amam Mbakwe, vice president of WHF, and consultant cardiologist, called for cardiovascular screening to be incorporated into the primary healthcare system, noting that cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of death globally.
“The screening must start at the primary healthcare level. We are saying that we don’t need to develop another system. Let’s integrate it into the already existing primary healthcare system,” Mbakwe said.
She further said that Nigeria could not rely solely on specialists and tertiary hospitals to tackle the growing burden of cardiovascular diseases.
Rasaaq Adebayo, president of the Nigerian Cardiac Society (NCS), said that although the government had made progress in improving healthcare facilities and services, more needed to be done.
“Our association has been partnering with the government, and the government has been doing a lot in terms of enhancing facilities, providing facilities and providing services.
“But the population keeps growing, and the needs of the people keep growing. We still continue to advocate more facilities. The ones that have been used, we need to replace them and so on,” Adebayo said.
He said Nigerians had become more conscious of physical exercise compared with previous decades, but noted that more needed to be done to reduce sedentary lifestyles.
