South Asians, including people from India, living in Canada have a higher rate of heart disease and double the rate of diabetes compared with Caucasian people, says a study co-authored by an Indian-origin researcher.
South Asians - people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh - comprise about three percent of the Canadian population.
"Our findings emphasise the need to develop a standardised surveillance system for non-communicable diseases, such as CVD (cardio-vascular disease), cancer and lung diseases, by ethnic groups in Canada," said Sonia Anand, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada.
To understand the risk of heart disease in this population, the researchers looked at data from 50 studies conducted in Canada between 1979 and 2007 that included more than 5.8 million people.
People of South Asian background have a higher prevalence of heart disease (5.7-10 percent) compared with Caucasian people (5.4-5.7 percent), the findings showed.
The rate of death from coronary artery disease was also higher: 42 percent for South Asian men compared with 29 percent for Caucasian men and 29 percent versus 19 percent for women.
South Asian people are also more likely to have diabetes and hypertension than white people, the study noted.
When the authors compared South Asians with white people of the same body size, South Asians had higher percentages of body fat, abdominal fat and South Asian women had a higher waist-to-hip ratio. These factors are all considered to be key risk factors for heart disease.
"Given the increased prevalence and mortality associated with CVD among South Asian people living in Canada, studies to understand the development of these risk factors among children and the youth as well as intervention strategies to reduce the risk of these factors are needed," said co-author Scott Lee from the Simon Fraser University in Canada.
The study appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The authors said that almost 1 million South Asian people live in Canada (3% of the Canadian population) and represent one of the country’s fastest growing ethnic groups.1 Of the approximately 70% born outside Canada, 75% immigrated to Canada in the last 20 years.
Evidence collected over the last 20 years suggests that rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and health behaviours vary among ethnic groups in Canada and that adoption of health behaviours typical of Western countries may promote the development of cardiometabolic risk factors among various ethnic groups.
Initial research suggests that one group in particular, South Asians (i.e., people originating from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh) have higher CVD rates than other groups and these differences persist in their offspring.
South Asian people also have more severe CVD, present with the disease at younger ages and, in some contexts, have differential access to diagnostic and treatment services compared with non–South Asian people.
The health of the South Asian population is of great importance to Canadian society, and it is important to quantify their risk of CVD to inform health promotion strategies. 
“We systematically reviewed the literature comparing South Asian people with white people living in Canada with respect to CVD risk factors, management, access to diagnostic testing and adherence to cardiac rehabilitation programs,” The authors said
The study also found that health care access, including diagnostic cardiac tests and interventions, is similar among South Asian and white people, although there are interprovincial and contextual variations. 
For example, South Asian people living in Alberta and British Columbia are less likely than white people to undergo angiography in under 3 hours following an acute MI but are more likely to undergo angiography or cardiac catheterization at 30 days and 1 year after acute MI.
However, a study in the greater Toronto area showed that South Asian and white people were equally likely to undergo angiography.