CV risks rise among Native Americans.(Clinical Rounds)

ATLANTA -- The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease is alarmingly high and continues to rise in Native Americans, according to several reports at a prevention conference on heart disease and stroke sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In one study of adult Native Americans (defined as American Indians and Alaska Natives) from Montana who took part in an annual telephone survey, significant increases were seen between 1999 and 2003 in the proportion reporting diabetes (12% vs. 16%), hypertension (26% vs. 34%), high cholesterol (23% vs. 30%), and obesity (34% vs. 39%). About 1,000 adults completed the survey in each of the four study years, Carrie S. Oser reported in a poster at the meeting.

After adjustment for age, sex, and survey year, the increases in the proportion reporting hypertension, high cholesterol, and obesity remained significant, said Ms. Oser of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services in Helena.

The prevalence of cardiovascular disease rose slightly from 10% to 11% over the course of the study, and smoking rates dropped slightly from 38% to 36%, although they remained high.

In another study of Native Americans in North Carolina, which has the eighth-largest Native American population in the United States, age-adjusted rates of cardiovascular risk factor prevalence were compared with those of North Carolina whites and African Americans.

The 285 Native Americans studied in 2002 and the 230 studied in 2003 had higher rates of hypertension (40% vs. 27%), obesity (33% vs. 21%), and diabetes (14% vs. 7%) than did whites. They also were less likely than whites to engage in leisure-time physical activity (66% vs. 76%) and to engage in the recommended amount of ...