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AHA—MINORITY DISPARITIES IN CARDIAC CARE

There are numerous studies which show racial disparities in healthcare. Two new studies show the differences are certainly caused at least in part, by inadequate medication treatment.

Minorities are being shortchanged when it come to healthcare, reveals latest research.
Two new studies show the differences are certainly caused at least in part, by inadequate medication treatment.

Angioplasty and heart bypass surgery are important lifesaving treatments for patients suffering heart attacks. But are minorities are either not getting the procedures or not getting adequate care after them?

In the largest analysis of its kind, researchers from Duke University found that African American heart attack patients, in New York and elsewhere, have a 1.7 times higher death rate than Caucasians one year after being treated in the hospital. Researchers evaluated the data from over 30,000 patients undergoing procedures to reopen blocked heart arteries during a serious heart attack. Blacks were less likely to undergo a surgical procedure to restore blood flow. Also, while death rates were similar in the first 30 days after the procedure, in-hospital stroke and bleeding and overall one-year death rates were much higher.

Dr. Rajendra Mehta of Duke University, the study researcher, states, “As you go beyond 30 days the curve starts to separate and the worst outcomes were in African American women followed by African American men. And both these groups had worse outcomes especially mortality at one year compared to the Caucasians in men and women.” The African Americans were younger than whites, so what should be expected is a lower death rate. But the findings showed just the reverse…the younger blacks were more likely to die.

“I think the major thing that makes the outcome different is probably related to socioeconomic factors. They are treated by physicians who are not specialists, for example, they are more likely to be treated in community hospitals and their compliance rate with medications is lower,” says Dr. Mehta.

Other healthcare research out of Wake Forest University shows disturbing evidence minorities don’t get important life saving medicine.

Compared with Whites, Blacks and Hispanics who should be on cholesterol lowering medicines are less likely to have their bad or LDL cholesterol controlled to recommended levels. This is worrying because previous healthcare studies have shown blacks are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than are whites. Blacks were 28 percent less likely to have their cholesterol levels properly controlled than whites. Hispanics were 36 percent less likely.

Related Stories Links:

- AHA: PLAQUE REMOVER, VITAMIN E DEATH RISK
- BETTER CARDIAC SURGERY
- CDC STUDY ON HEART DISEASE