Wockhardt Hospital, in a tie-up with the Jawahar Bhawan, a children's entertainment centre in Bangalore, has initiated a special information campaign called ‘Heart Express' that would travel across 37 spots in Karnataka telling children to maintain their hearts healthy and keep lifestyle diseases at bay.

In the year-long campaign, Wockhardt plans to cover a million children through leaflets and education material about preventing heart diseases well ahead in life.

“Indians have a higher disposition of heart diseases and it is therefore critical that we promote balanced nutrition's diet and regular exercise among our children, said Vishal Bali, vice president operations, Wockhardt Hospitals.

Heart Express hopes to drive home a grim fact that nearly 22 million children aged less than five years are overweight according to the studies and youngsters are accumulating several risk factors that contribute to heart disease. Children exposed to early risk factors are most likely to suffer from heart diseases in future. Apart from wrong food, lack of exercise and over weight, children face other challenges like regular exposure to passive smoking by adults at home. "Such kids end up suffering from many other diseases of an active smoker and have 25 per cent increased risk of developing heart diseases. So the message to parents is to quit smoking immediately," informed Dr. Jayaranganath, paediatric cardiologist, Wockhardt Hospital.

One per cent of the live births result in cardiovascular malformations, said Vivek Jawali, chief cardiovascular surgeon, Wockhardt.

"Through Heart Express we hope to educate both children and their parents about life-long healthy eating habits and physical activity thereby ensuring a generation with healthier hearts," concluded Bali.