At least 61 per cent doctors, including cardiologists, in Pakistan are obese or over weight, while 7.5 per cent doctors across the country are addicted to smoking, according to a study.

"After conducting interviews of 159 doctors and health specialists across the country, surprisingly, 21 per cent of them were found to be obese, while 40 per cent of them would be categorized as overweight," said researcher and interventional cardiology fellow, Dr Salik Ahmed, at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) while addressing a ceremony to brief his research.

After scrutinizing research papers and health researches of young doctors, at least six of them were awarded cash prizes in the grand finale of the 5th Cardiology Research Award at the 50th Cardiocon of the Pakistan Cardiac Society on Sunday.

In his address, Ahmed noted families of 26 per cent doctors in his research had heart diseases and 65 per cent of them were aware of the fact that they had to exercise more than 2.5 hours in a week.

During the research, he found only 26 per cent participants exercised regularly, while others were not getting enough time to walk or work out regularly.

Despite his revelationary research, Ahmed failed to bag an award for his work.

Dr Huma Zartash from Lahore’s Doctors Hospital bagged the first prize of Rs100,000 for her research on a drug called ARNI (angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor) in improving the quality of life in heart failure patients with chronic kidney disease.

Dr Syed Waqar Ahmed from Karachi’s Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) clinched the second prize and Dr Sanam Khawaja from the NICVD got the third prize for their research papers in the field of cardiology.