High Prevalence of Hypertension and Other Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in US- and Caribbean-Born Blacks with Chest Pain Syndromes.

BACKGROUND

Caribbean-born blacks (CBB) have been reported to have lower coronary artery disease mortality rates than US-born blacks (UBB). We assessed whether CBB have a lower prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors compared to UBB. METHODS: Non-Hispanic blacks (n = 275) hospitalized for chest pain who were prospectively enrolled in our Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Group (CORG) study provided clinical and demographic data. RESULTS: The study cohort comprised 45% (n = 125) UBB with a mean age of 61 ± 16 years and 55% (n = 150) CBB with a mean age of 63 ± 11 years. Myocardial infarction was diagnosed in 33% of UBB and 36% of CBB. CBB had a lower rate of previous myocardial infarction (14 vs. 24%; p = 0.04). They also smoked less (16 vs. 35%; p = 0.001) and were less likely to have first-degree relatives with coronary artery disease (24 vs. 41%; p = 0.018). However, they had a similarly high prevalence of hypertension (99 vs. 98%; p = 0.99), diabetes (58 vs. 48%; p = 0.11), dyslipidemia (53 vs. 42%; p = 0.08), and obesity (34 vs. 40%; p = 0.29) as UBB. CONCLUSION: A very high prevalence of hypertension exists in non-Hispanic blacks hospitalized for chest pain. CBB and UBB have a similar prevalence of cardiometabolic profile in our study population. Besides smoking, other factors contributing to lower CHD mortality reported for CBB need to be further explored.