AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a chronic health condition that affects the heart and the blood vessels.  It includes coronary heart disease, stroke (brain attack), hypertension (high blood pressure), and rheumatic heart disease (permanent heart valve damage from rheumatic fever).  CVD is the leading cause of premature death and disability among American women of all racial and ethnic groups.

Facts About Cardiovascular Disease

Approximately 59 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and other conditions.

One in nine women between the ages of 45 and 64 has some form of heart disease; this increases to one in three women over age 65.

More than 2,600 Americans die each day of cardiovascular disease.  That is an average of 1 death every 33 seconds.

Among women, cardiovascular disease claims more lives than the top 16 causes of death combined. 

Nearly 370,000 American women die from heart disease each year.

Cardiovascular disease will cost the nation an estimated $326.6 billion in 2000, including health expenditures and lost productivity.

Risk factors for cardiovascular disease include cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, overweight, physical inactivity, and diabetes.  The more risk factors that you have, the more likely your chances are of developing cardiovascular disease.

Racial Disparity: Heart Disease in African American Women

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among African American, Hispanic, and Native American women.  Among Asian American women, heart disease is the second leading cause of death.

African American women are at a greater risk of dying from heart disease compared with women of other major racial and ethnic groups due to limited access to healthcare, inadequate medical care delayed diagnosis.

African American women are 30% more likely to die of heart attack and 78% more likely to die of a stroke than white women.

Several factors increase the probability of developing cardiovascular disease including hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity (overweight), high cholesterol, and smoking.

31% of African American women have high blood pressure.

Nearly 70% of Blacks between ages 20-74 are overweight.  Specifically, more than half of all Black women are overweight. 

46% of African American women have high cholesterol.

References:

¹American Heart Association., Inc. Women, Heart Disease, and Stroke. 2000

²CDC. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

³Ibid.

⁴Ibid.

⁵Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Women and Heart Disease: An Atlas of Racial and Ethnic ⁶Disparities in Mortality.