Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors as Influenced by Race and Ethnic Background

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the USA accounting for 32 % of all deaths (Prev Chron Dis 11:1302507, 2014). Those with diabetes (DM) are two times more likely to experience a CVD event and have a two to fourfold greater mortality rate from a CVD event as compared to those without DM (Diabetes Care 35, 2012). Ethnic minorities have higher incidence of DM; whereas only 7.1 % of non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) have diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), it is present in 8.4 % of Asian Americans, 11.8 % of Hispanics, and 12.6 % of non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) (Cardiorenal Med 4:1–11, 2014). African Americans (NHB) are twice as likely to develop DM2 as compared to NHW and have higher rates of retinopathy, hypertension (HTN) and renal disease (PLoS ONE 7(3):e32840, 2012). American Indian (AI) adults are three times more likely to have diabetes than the general adult US population and have higher rates of hypertension, lower leg amputations, cerebrovascular disease, obesity, and mortality from diabetes than do NHW (Diabetes Care 33(7), 2010). Mexican Americans (MA) have an odds ratio of developing diabetes that is 2.33 times higher than NHW (Diabetes Care 35, 2012). Latinos have higher rates of retinopathy, renal disease, coronary heart disease, and poorly controlled diabetes as compared to NHW (Diabetes Care 35, 2012). Asians have either greater or lower rates of CVD risk factors compared to NHW depending of the subgroup of Asian background; however, Asians develop DM at a lower BMI than many other ethnicities (Cardiorenal Med 4:1–11, 2014). Education, income, health insurance status, and length of residence in host country also influence DM prevalence and CVD risk factors.