Abstract
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The global surge in migration to high-income countries, especially Canada, highlights the importance of studies evaluating the risk factors and the disparities in the rate of incidence of CVD among immigrants. Canada is home to a diverse group of immigrants, each presenting with a risk profile that is unique to their ethnicity and country of birth. A variety of cardiac risk factors, such as dietary habits, physical activity, smoking, cultural traditions as well as preponderance to certain diseases like type II diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and high lipid levels act in concert and impact CVD risk and overall incidence. This narrative review focuses on CVD risks and how it is related to the immigration status among various ethnic groups in Canada.
Highlights
BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) risks are of concern among immigrants and refugees settling in developed host countries [1, 2]
This narrative review focuses on CVD risks and how it is related to the immigration status among various ethnic groups in Canada
The impact of CVD on different ethnic groups varies as each group has a unique risk profile
Summary
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks are of concern among immigrants and refugees settling in developed host countries [1, 2]. The CANHEART immigrant study conducted in 2002 based on a cohort of 824, 662 first-generation immigrants from eight major ethnic groups namely East Asian, Southeast Asian, Blacks, West Asian/Arab, Latin American, white Eastern European, and white Western European origin, and 201 countries of birth, reported that the incidence of cardiovascular events was similar among different countries of origin within each geographical region of origin, few exceptions were noted [8]. Immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan had the highest cardiac risk factor score which is a point-based score to quantify the burden of four modifiable risk factors like smoking, type II diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and high lipid levels [8, 23] Among these immigrants, refugees had the highest proportion of cardiovascular risk factor scores.
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