title: Challenges in preventing heart disease in hispanics: early lessons learned from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).
abstract: The challenge of preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in US Hispanics depends upon being able to understand and communicate about the diversity within this population in terms of environmental exposures, health behaviors, socio-cultural experiences and genetic background to CVD risk factor profiles and disease burdens. Recent publications from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have begun to accomplish this task. In this article we review some of the HCHS/SOL findings concerning cardiometabolic and other CVD risk factors and relate them to the need for increased access to health care and attention to lifestyle variables including nutrition. A major challenge that needs to be accomplished is to alert our lawmakers, public health officials, health care providers and the Hispanic population at large about how to lighten the CVD risk factor and disease burdens now carried by our Hispanic population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Research Center, University of Miami, Miami, FL. Electronic address: nschneid@miami.edu.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schneiderman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Research Center, University of Miami, Miami, FL.
authors.forename: Diana A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Chirinos
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
authors.forename: M Larissa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Avilés-Santa
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, UNC at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heiss
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cardiovascular risk factors; Health insurance; Hispanic Community Health Study