MyBlack^® Health

African American Health Studies

Report Shows Racial Variants in Heart Disease Risk High Blood Pressure is Leading Risk factor for Blacks

Source: Washington Informer

Heart disease has replaced cancer as the number one killer of Americans. In fact, a new report from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says nearly half of Americans have one or more of the conditions which place them at risk for developing heart disease. Those conditions are hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol and diabetes. However, the new report finds racial and ethnic variants in the risk factors. For example, African Americans were more likely to have hypertension, while whites had the highest proportion of high cholesterol and Hispanic Americans were more like to have diabetes. African Americans were also more likely to have more than one of the conditions. New Report Says White Obesity Rates are Leveling off but Blacks Are Still Getting Fatter According to a new report, the obesity epidemic which has gripped the nation for the past 20 years appears to be leveling off for adult whites but Blacks, young adults and children are still getting fatter. The report – “Forecasting Distribution of Body Mass Index in the United States: Is there More Room for Growth” – was compiled by Dr. Anirban Basu of the University of Chicago School of Medicine. Basu and his research team project that obesity rates for most age categories will remain stable for the next 10 years. However, they also project that young African American adults aged 18-to-39, children aged 6-to-9 and Black children 10 and older will have rising obesity rates.

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