Burden significantly higher among young and middle-aged black versus white men and women
TUESDAY, May 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — The burden of heart failure-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is increased among young and middle-aged blacks, according to a research letter published in the May 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Peter Glynn, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues examined national trends in mortality attributed to heart failure-related CVD by sex and race among black and white adults aged 35 to 84 years.
The researchers found that from 1999 through 2012, age-adjusted rates for heart failure-related CVD death decreased significantly (78.7 to 53.7 per 100,000) and then increased through 2017 (59.3 per 100,000). The patterns were similar in blacks and whites, with an inflection point in 2011 to 2012 when the increase in death rates started. Compared with white men, black men had a 1.16-fold versus a 1.43-fold higher age-adjusted heart failure-related CVD death rate in 1999 versus 2017; compared with white women, black women had a 1.35-fold versus a 1.54-fold higher age-adjusted heart failure-related CVD death rate during this same time period. Among younger adults (35 to 64 years), these disparities were more pronounced than among older adults (age 65 to 84 years). In 2017, the age-adjusted heart failure-related CVD death rates were 2.60-fold and 2.97-fold higher for young black versus white men and women, respectively.
“Population-wide policy measures are urgently needed to eliminate racial disparities and target individuals earlier in life for heart failure prevention,” the authors write.
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