Cardiovascular health disparities between whites and minorities narrow, study shows

The nation ’s overall cardiovascular health worsened from 1988 to 2014, with disparities among racial and ethnic groups dropping slightly. But the reduction in disparities was due to worsening health among whites — not improvements among African-Americans and Mexican-Americans, a new UCLA-led study suggest s.“The reason for the reduction in disparities was unexpected,” said lead author Dr. Arleen Brown, professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Olive View Medical Center. “Whites were the only group we studied where the pre valence of optimal cardiovascular health declined consistently over the time period.”Among the findings:From 1988 to 2014, the percentage of whites with optimal cardiovascular health fell 15.3 percentage points among those ages 25 to 44, and 4.6 percentage points among those 65 and older.By contrast, the percentage of African-Americans with optimal cardiovascular health fell 3 percentage points among those ages 25 to 44, and 0.3 percentage points among those 65 and older.The percentage of U.S.-born Mexican-Americans with optimal health fell 8.6 percentage points among those ages 25 to 44, and 2.6 percentage points for those over 65. For foreign-born people of Mexican descent, the percentage-point drops were 7.6 and 1.3, respectively.The researchers used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1988 through 2014 to examine trends — by race, ethnicity a...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news