Women & African Americans at Higher Risk for Death Following Heart Attack

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In the U.S., heart disease takes 610,000 lives every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. In 2009, as much as 292,188 women died of heart disease. CDC further notes that heart disease is the leading cause of death for African American and white women in the U.S., taking just about as much lives as cancer.

A new study conducted by the team of Dr. Emily M. Bucholz of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut revealed that women and African Americans live shorter lives following a heart attack.

Reuters reported that the research studied more than 140,000 Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized due to heart attacks between 1994 and 1995, more than half of which were women. The average age of the patients was 76 years old, and 10% of them were African Americans.

Bucholz told Reuters: "The thing that’s completely different from prior studies is (those studies) have not factored in what is the mean life expectancy for women in the general population."

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported that according to the research, those aged 70 who experienced a heart attack lived for about nine more years following the attack, while their black counterparts--men and women of the same age--lived for about seven more years. The study showed that women lost two more years of potential life compared to men who lost 3.5, and black people lost one more year of potential life compared to whites, who lost 4.5 on average.

Bucholz observed that the African Americans were had more diabetes and more prone to have several severe heart attacks and heart failure than the Caucasians. Dr. Jack V. Tu of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto also said that the black population in the study "also were less likely to get acute treatments". This has led the study authors to believe that the African Americans may have received less than standard care from hospitals.

According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for a lot of the ethnicities in the U.S., with 24.5% of African American deaths attributed to this illness. CDC further reports that key factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, high levels of LDL cholesterol, and smoking, with 49% of Americans having at least one of these risk factors. Other risk factors include poor diet, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol use, obesity, and diabetes.

The CDC encourages a healthy lifestyle to protect your heart from various diseases. Such practices include a low-salt, low-fat diet, with regular exercise. Smoking is also highly discouraged. To know more about heart disease and its statistics in the U.S., visit cdc.gov.