Hispanic Women's Hearts at High Risk: Study

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Medical histories were collected for 79 Hispanic women, along with measurements of blood pressure, body mass index, waist circumference, lipid profiles and blood sugar.

A group of 91 white women served as the control group. The average age of the Hispanic women was 53 vs. 63 in the white group. Only 61 percent of the Hispanic women were postmenopausal, compared with 85 percent of the white women.

Despite age differences and differences in menopausal status, heart disease risk for the two ethnic groups was about the same.

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Hispanic women had a higher rate of pre-hypertension (32 percent) compared with white women (19 percent). Physical activity levels for Hispanic women were significantly lower and they had a slightly higher rate of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that predispose a person towards cardiovascular disease.

Scores for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and waist circumference were similar between the two groups.

"I thought the findings were shocking," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease and the Heart & Vascular Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "We have to find out what about Hispanic women is leading to this increased risk of heart disease."

"Hispanic women need to get checked earlier because their risk is earlier," Steinbaum added. "Hispanic women in their 20s really need to have an exam. Pre-hypertension needs to be looked for and treated early."

What, then, explains the wide acceptance among clinicians of the Hispanic Paradox?

Teeters believes that the Hispanic Paradox may have resulted from incomplete data. "Hispanic patients are less likely to come to care, so there's probably under-recognition of the degree of disease," Teeters said. "Many are immigrants and many go home when they become ill. There's also a higher degree of illegal alien status so there's probably underreporting."

Teeters and his team are now expanding their research to look at black Americans, who are expected to be another high-risk group. They also want to see if they can affect cardiac risk in high-risk groups by treating risk factors more aggressively earlier.

More information

For more on Hispanics and heart disease, head to the American Heart Association.

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