Abstract
National death certificate data suggest that racial disparities in acute coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality widened over the past decade for both men and women. To better understand this disparity, we examined black:white race-sex differences in overall, fatal and nonfatal acute CHD incidence in a large national biracial cohort. REGARDS is following 30,239 community-dwellers age ≥;45 years recruited between 2003-7 from 48 states. Recruitment was designed to balance race and sex; the final sample was 55% female and 41% black. Participants are telephoned every 6 months for CVD endpoints, with retrieval of medical records, death certificates, interviews with next-of-kin, and expert adjudication following national consensus recommendations. Acute CHD was defined as definite or probable myocardial infarction (MI) or acute CHD death. Among participants free of CHD at baseline, we examined black:white hazards for incident overall acute CHD, and, separately, fatal and nonfatal acute CHD for men and women through 2008, adjusting incrementally for sampling, sociodemographics and CHD risk factors. The study sample numbered 24,431 with mean age 64.1 (SD±9.3). Over a mean follow-up of 3.4 (maximum 5.9) years, 48.7% (55/113) of black men, 33.0% (38/115) of black women, 23.0% (46/200) of white men and 24.1% (21/87) of white women died at their presentation of acute CHD. Black:white hazard ratios for overall, fatal and nonfatal acute CHD from incrementally adjusted models stratified on sex are presented in the Table. Black men and women had over twice the age-adjusted hazard of incident fatal acute CHD compared to whites, not entirely explained by excess risk factor burden among blacks. Although socio-economic and CHD risk factors among blacks continue to be major contributors to fatal incident acute CHD, known risk factors did not fully explain the disparity between black and white men; causes of the elevated risk among black men need to be better understood if widening CHD mortality disparities are to be reversed.
Published Version
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