Asian Americans Face Significant Health Risk

It may be time to focus health promotion efforts toward Asian Americans. Research from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2014; 64 [23], 2486–94) says that this population has a significantly high risk of dying from heart disease or stroke.

Using U.S. census data and death records, researchers examined death rates among the largest Asian subgroups (Asian-Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese). They then narrowed their search to deaths caused by heart disease and stroke. Overall, the researchers combed 10,442,034 death records.

They discovered that non-Hispanic white individuals had the highest overall mortality rates. However, the rate of death from ischemic heart disease was highest in Asian-Indian men and women and Filipino men. The “proportionate mortality burden of hypertensive heart disease and cerebro-vascular disease mortality . . . was higher in every Asian-American group than [it was] in non-Hispanic whites,” the authors found.

Based on this data, they concluded that population-specific prevention efforts are needed to mitigate these disease risks.