Heart Disease and African Americans: Just the Facts

The term “heart disease¹” refers to several types of heart conditions. The most common type of heart disease in the United States is coronary artery disease, which affects the blood flow to the heart. Decreased blood flow can cause a heart attack.

The United States Office of Minority Health² has provided data about heart disease and African-Americans. The information could be better organized, but Jay Harold feels that it’s important for you to know the facts about heart disease.

Although African American adults are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, they are less as likely than their non-Hispanic White counterparts to have their blood pressure under control.

In 2010, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites.
African American women are 1.6 times more likely (60 percent more likely) than non-Hispanic white women to have high blood pressure.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

At a glance – Diagnosed Cases of Coronary Heart Disease:

**Age-adjusted percentages of coronary heart disease among persons 18 years of age and over, 2012**
Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
6.5	6.2	1.0

Rates are about the same for Blacks and Whites

Source: CDC 2014. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2012. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_260.pdf

At a glance – Death Rate:

**Age-Adjusted Heart Disease Death Rates per 100,000 (2013)**
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	289.1	217.9	1.2
Women	176.4	134.6	1.3
Total	215.5	171.8	1.3

Rates are worse for African Americans

Source: CDC, 2014. National Vital Statistics Report. Vol. 64, Num 2 Table 17.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf

At a Glance – Risk Factors:

There are several risk factors related to heart disease. Some of these risk factors are:

Obesity and Overweight – See Obesity and African Americans³

Hypertension

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 20 years of age and over who have high blood pressure, 2009-2012.**
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	42.5	29.6	1.4
Women	44.2	27.5	1.6

Rates are much worse for African Americans

Source: CDC 2015 Health United States, 2014. Table 60.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus14.pdf

Heart Disease and African Americans: Just the Facts

Improving your health is Jay Harold’s constant goal.

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who have high blood pressure, 2012.**
Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black /Non-Hispanic White Ratio
33.2	23.4	1.4

Rates are worse for African Americans

Source: CDC 2014. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2012. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_260.pdf

**Percent of adults with hypertension whose blood pressure is under control, 2011-2012**
Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
48.7	53.9	0.9

African Americans are less likely to have blood pressure is under control

Source: CDC 2015. Health Indicators Warehouse.
http://www.healthindicators.gov/Indicators/Blood-pressure-control-adults-with-hypertensionpercent_882/Profile

High Cholesterol

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 20 years of age and over who have high cholesterol, 2009-2012.**
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	25.6	28.1	0.9
Women	26.3	28.2	0.9

African Americans are less likely to have high cholesterol Than White Americans

African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites.

Source: CDC 2015. Health United States, 2014. Table 61.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus14.pdf

**Adults who received a blood cholesterol measurement in the last 5 years, 2008**
Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
76.9	74.1	1.0

Rates are about the same for Blacks and Whites

Source: AHRQ 2015. National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query. Table 7 _5_ 1_ 4_2.1.
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Heart Disease and African Americans

Age-adjusted percentage of adults aged 20 and over-screened for cholesterol, 2011-2012
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black /Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	66.8	70.6	0.9
Women	75.9	72.9	1.0
Total	71.9	71.8	1.0

Rates are about the same for Blacks and Whites

Source: CDC 2013. NCHS Data Brief, No. 132, Figure 5.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db132.pdf

Cigarette Smoking

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are current cigarette smokers, 2009-2011.**
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Men	22.5	22.1	1.0
Women	14.9	19.2	0.8

Black Women are less likely to smoke than White Women and Men in general

Source: CDC, 2015. Health United States, 2014 Table 54.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus14.pdf

**Percentage of current smokers age 18 and over with a checkup who reported receiving advice to quit smoking, 2009**
	Non-Hispanic Black	Non-Hispanic White	Non-Hispanic Black/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	59.0	66.3	0.9
Women	61.5	73.8	0.8
Total	60.5	70.5	0.9

African Americans are less likely to have received advice to quit smoking than White Americans

Source: 2013 National Healthcare Quality Report. Table T2_10_1_1-1_2b.
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqrdr12/index.html

At a Glance – Treatment:

**Hospital patients with heart attack who were prescribed ACE inhibitor or ARB at discharge, United States, 2012**
Black	White	Black/ White Ratio
97.5	96.1	1.0

Rates are about the same for Blacks and Whites

Source: AHRQ 2015. National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query. Table 6_2_3_1_1.1.
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

ACE inhibitors⁵ are used to treat heart disease. These medicines make your heart work less hard by lowering your blood pressure. This keeps some kinds of heart disease from getting worse. Most people who have heart failure take these medicines.

Lack of private insurance could be a factor in the bad heart disease results in African Americans. In 2012, 50.4 percent of African-Americans in comparison to 74.4 percent of non-Hispanic Whites used private health insurance⁶. Also in 2012, 40.6 percent of African-Americans in comparison to 29.3 percent of non-Hispanic Whites relied on Medicaid, public health insurance. Finally, 17.2 percent of African-Americans in comparison to 10.4 percent of non-Hispanic whites were uninsured.

Click this link to get free Health and Wealth information to improve your life. Play the free “Slow Roll Through Civil Rights” Game found on the Jay Harold website. Enjoyed this post? Share it and read more here. Questions? “Ask the Pharmacist a Question!”