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American Morning

Research Links Ethnicity, Environment to Heart Disease

Aired June 20, 2001 - 11:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We've just gotten new word on new research that's out today drawing a link between ethnic background and increased chance of heart disease for men.

Our medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is here with the finer points of these findings.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a report on men and heart disease put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It finds that there continued to be wide disparities in who is dying from heart disease, despite advances in heart disease treatment and prevention.

The report, first of all, found that African-American men are most likely to die from heart disease. They are 26 percent more likely to die from heart disease than white men, twice as likely to die compared to Hispanic men.

African-American men are also more likely to die at a younger age from heart disease. In fact, 40 percent of African-American men who die of heart disease, die before the age of 65, whereas only 25 percent of white men die prematurely.

We have some further statistics to show how this breakdown occurs. First of all, in this study -- it looked at men over the age of 35 in the United States between 1991 and 1995. It looked at death rates per 100,000 men. On average, 675 men per 100,000 die of heart disease. For African-Americans, you can see the figure is 841. For white men, it's 666. When you go down to Asian and Pacific Islanders, the rate is 372 per 100,000 men.

The study also shows a man's risk of dying from heart disease depends, in part, on where he lives. Here, again, the rates were figured for 100,000 men, and rates varied substantially by state, with a low of 482 heart disease deaths per 100,000 to a high of 878 per 100,000. It appears that these higher heart disease death appear to be in certain parts of the rural South others, in the Mississippi River Valley, and in parts of Appalachia. Men seemed to fare better if they lived in the Western United States and the upper Midwest. Also, men in cities fared better, except for in New York City, compared to men, Leon, living in rural areas.

HARRIS: The immediate question is what is it about where you live that matters and makes such a big difference, then? ROWLAND: The researchers point to several things. If you're in a rural area, it appears the health care is not as good. You may not have the advanced coronary care units in the hospitals, so these men may not be getting as good of care.

The other major factor seems to be economic underdevelopment. There are still parts of out country where historically there have been problems, and that has continued. These men cannot take advantage of healthy living, because they don't have an economic infrastructure or the education on prevention and that sort of thing.

HARRIS: I would think immediately that with the economy having grown as much as it has, the disparities would have lessened over the last few years or so. Is the trend out there getting worse at all? Can you tell?

ROWLAND: They're just not seeing the improvement they would like to see. The researchers told us they are still shocked that these disparities continue, and it seems, in some areas, that wealth may be exported from an area to another part of the country, so the men are not benefiting. That's a real problem.

In this report, Leon, they break down the death rates by state, but also by county. Now the health experts can look at, find what counties in a state have problems, so they can go in and target and try to help these men, give them the education they need, and give them the health care that they need, so that disparities can disappear.

HARRIS: More education is definitely a good thing in this particular case.

ROWLAND: It is.

HARRIS: Rhonda Rowland, thanks much for explaining that. We appreciate that.

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