Mortality from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease among adult U.S. Hispanics: findings from the National Health Interview Survey (1986 to 1994).
OBJECTIVE
We sought to estimate the coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality experience of U.S. Hispanics.


BACKGROUND
Limited information is available concerning the mortality from CHD among U.S. Hispanics, the nation's second largest minority group.


METHODS
The study used data from the National Health Interview Survey (1986 to 1994), including representative national samples of 246,239 non-Hispanic whites, 38,042 blacks and 14,965 Hispanics who were > or = 45 years old at baseline. Mean follow-up of mortality was 5 years (range 1 to 10).


RESULTS
During the follow-up period, 27,702 whites (11%), 4,976 blacks (13%) and 1,061 Hispanics (7%) died. Among men, the age-adjusted total mortality per 100,000 person-years was 3,089 in whites and 2,466 in Hispanics, and among women, it was 1,897 and 1,581 in whites and Hispanics, respectively. The Hispanic/white mortality rate ratio for CHD was 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64 to 0.93) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.66 to 1.01) for men and women, respectively. The rate ratio was 0.79 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.91) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.94), respectively, for mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Given the lower all-cause mortality in Hispanics, the proportion of total deaths due to CHD and CVD was similar between the two populations for the same gender and were, respectively, 29.7% and 44.7% in white men, 28.1% and 44.3% in Hispanic men, 24.9% and 43.2% in white women and 24.1% and 41% in Hispanic women.


CONCLUSIONS
These data from a cohort of a large national sample are consistent with vital statistics that show that all-cause, CHD and CVD mortality is approximately 20% lower among adult Hispanics than among whites in the United States.
Liao
Y
Y
Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois 60153, USA. yliao@luccpua.it.luc.edu
Cooper
R S
RS
Cao
G
G
Kaufman
J S
JS
Long
A E
AE
McGee
D L
DL
D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American