Black men may have similar risk of coronary heart disease as white men, but their first cardiac event is twice as likely to be fatal. That means preventing a first heart attack is even more crucial for blacks, according to research findings reported in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.However, the findings differed for nonfatal events. Accounting for these same factors resulted in lower risk of nonfatal events in black men compared to white men, with similar patterns among women that were not statistically significant. According to the researchers, blacks have a higher burden of unfavorable social determinants of health and cardiovascular risk factors, so the lower risk of nonfatal cardiac events among blacks, especially black men, after accounting for these factors was surprising. These findings suggest that some other factor that the researchers could not measure may be driving the findings.
“Greater public awareness of heart attack symptoms would benefit everyone. Many people think that heart attacks are only present if they have severe chest pain. In fact, many heart attacks cause only mild symptoms and people may mistakenly think they are having a bout of indigestion.” If the heart condition is not recognized, medications that save lives after a heart attack cannot be offered.
Source:Guardian
