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CV mortality rate varies among Asian-American subgroups
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Premature mortality due to CVD burden varies among Asian-American subgroups, and is highest in Asian Indian, Filipino and Vietnamese adults, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Latha Palaniappan, MD, MS, and colleagues assessed the years of potential life lost due to ischemic heart disease and CVD among the six largest Asian-American subgroups (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese) compared with non-Hispanic white adults.
“Not a lot of data is available on Asians in the U.S. and just aggregating by Asian subgroup, because there is not good aggregated health information,” Palaniappan, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, told Cardiology Today. “It’s important to separate the subgroups because some groups have a higher risk for heart disease and other groups have higher risk for stroke.”
Palaniappan and colleagues analyzed mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics Multiple Causes of Death study between 2003 to 2012. The researchers calculated race-specific life expectancy, mean years of potential life lost and years of potential life lost per 100,000 population for each Asian subgroup and non-Hispanic white adults.
Palaniappan and colleagues discerned that Asian Indians had a high burden of ischemic heart disease. Asian Indian men lost 724 years per 100,000 population in 2012 and a mean of 17 years to ischemic heart disease, the researchers wrote.
Vietnamese and Filipino men lost a mean of 17 years of life to CVD, Vietnamese and Filipino women lost a mean of 16 years of life compared with non-Hispanic white adults, and Filipino men lost 352 years per 100,000 population in 2012, Palaniappan and colleagues wrote.
According to the researchers, all Asian subgroups for both sexes had higher years of life lost to CVD compared with non-Hispanic white adults.
Analysis of risk factors and development of subgroup-specific interventions are required to address the health disparities, Palaniappan and colleagues wrote.
“Cardiovascular disease is an important cause of death in Asian subgroups,” Palaniappan told Cardiology Today. “Steps to prevent these diseases include healthy eating, daily exercise and monitoring your risk factors such as cholesterol and BP and not smoking.”
In a related editorial published on the AHA’s Centers for Health Metrics and Evaluation website, Yosef M. Khan, MD, MPH, PhD, the director of health informatics and analytics at the Centers for Health Metrics and Evaluation, wrote: “Now we can attach real numbers to the toll that CVD takes on different Asian-American populations, we can better direct and shape efforts — whether research, education, clinical care or advocacy — to help prevent and treat CVD disparities leading to an increase in life years. Continued assessment of subgroup-specific outcomes will help us evaluate changes in risk factors that coincide with interventions such as educational campaigns or environmental and policy tailored to specific subgroups.” – by Earl Holland Jr.
References:
Iyer DG, et al. J Am Heart Assoc. 2019;doi:10.1161/JAHA.118.010744.
Khan YM. Unraveling differences in CVD outcomes among Asian-American subgroups reveal disparities. AHA Centers for Health Metrics and Evaluation. March 20, 2019.
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures. Khan reports he is an employee of the AHA.