(Circulation. 1999;99:598-599.)
© 1999 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News |
Studying Populations and Heart Disease Risk
1 Circulation Newswriter
Women and men; whites, Hispanics, and blacks; children and adults; diabetic; hypertensive; obese; hyperactive; previous heart attack; and high risk or low risk are all categories into which people can be grouped when heart disease is being evaluated. These differences affect an individual's risk of heart disease, how it is diagnosed, and what is done to reduce risks and to treat the heart disease when it is diagnosed. Many of these issues were the focus of sessions at the recent 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Dallas, Tex.
One of the first population studies dispelled popular myths about
Hispanic Americans and their supposedly lower risk for heart disease
and related death. Dr Dilip K. Pandey, assistant professor at the
University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, found just the
opposite: that Hispanic Americans are more likely to be hospitalized
and die of a heart attack than their non-Hispanic counterparts. The
study evaluated heart attack deaths in 1189 people aged 25 to 74 years
between the years 1990 and 1994 in Corpus Christi, Tex. Although the
differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic men were not
statistically significant, the numbers were surprising, said Pandey.
Non-Hispanic men died of heart attacks at a rate of 205 deaths per
100 000 population, whereas Hispanic men died at a rate of 227 deaths
per 100 000. But the differences in women were both startling and
statistically significant. Hispanic women died at a rate of 102 heart
attacks deaths per 100 000