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Science Forum Index » Medicine - Nutrition Forum » Study pinpoints trouble spots for heart disease - interestin
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| TC |
 Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:26 pm |
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-15-heart_x.htm
Study pinpoints trouble spots for heart disease
Posted 2/15/2007 9:52 PM ET
By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY
Heart disease is more common in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, and least common in the U.S. Virgin
Islands, according to the government's first state and territorial
estimates of people living with heart disease nationwide.
Several of the states with the highest heart disease rates lie in a
swath of Southeastern states known for high-fat diets. States
reporting the lowest heart disease rates lie mainly in the West and
Midwest: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Utah and
Colorado.
Some states and territories had twice the prevalence of heart disease
of others, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
Heart attack prevalence ranged from a high of 6.1% in West Virginia to
2.1% in the U.S. Virgin Islands. West Virginia residents also had the
highest prevalence of heart disease and/or heart attacks at 10.4%. The
Virgin Islands had the lowest at 3.5%.
"The magnitude of the difference was striking," says the study's lead
author, Jonathan Neyer of the CDC's division for heart disease and
stroke prevention.
Heart disease has been the nation's biggest killer for nearly a
century and could cost the economy $151 billion this year for medical
care, lost productivity and other direct and indirect costs. Yet
doctors have lacked reliable state-by-state information to enable them
to determine where to target prevention programs.
The new study provides that data, Neyer says, filling the gap between
surveys showing how many people suffer from heart disease risk factors
and how many people die of heart disease. The new survey, he says,
supplies the estimated prevalence of people "actually living with
heart disease."
The study revealed disparities based on education and race. The heart
disease prevalence was nearly twice as high among people with less
than a high school diploma as it was among college graduates, 9.8% vs.
5%. American Indians and Alaska natives reported a prevalence of 11%,
compared with 4.7% among Asians. Blacks, Hispanics and whites reported
heart disease prevalence ranging from 6% to 7%.
The CDC analysis is in Friday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The data come from the agency's 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System, a random phone survey. A total of 356,112 adults
responded to the survey in 2005, the report says.
Overall, 6.5% of people said a doctor or health provider told them
they had a heart attack, angina or coronary heart disease.
Although the risk factor surveillance system has been established for
years, this was the first time all 50 states and territories provided
information on heart disease.
The study's main drawback is that it is based on self-reported data,
which are not always accurate.
"If you're asking somebody whether they have heart disease, they're
not going to tell you unless they've seen a doctor and gotten
diagnosed," says Harvard's Christopher Murray, author of a September
study showing population-based differences in life expectancy that
generally jibe with the new report.
Murray says other government surveys indicated that half of people
with diabetes and high blood pressure know they have the conditions.
Neyer says diabetes and hypertension are often silent diseases; heart
attacks and chest pain are less likely to go unnoticed.
*****
"Several of the states with the highest heart disease rates lie in a
swath of Southeastern states known for high-fat diets." Arizona,
Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas
States reporting the lowest heart disease rates lie mainly in the West
and Midwest: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Utah,
Colorado
***
Interesting emphasis on high fat consumption in the southern states.
That may be, but what are the sweetners consumption and is there a
pattern?
***
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/SSS/Aug05/SSS24301/
U.S. sweetener consumption distribution, by share
Total Corn Other
Category Population1 sweeteners Sugar sweeteners sweeteners
Northeast 19.6 18.35 18.63 17.64 47.59
Midwest 23.5 26.05 26.28 26.22 5.86
South 34.9 34.95 34.74 35.25 29.27
West 22.0 20.66 20.35 20.89 23.38
1Population shares are from the 1990 Census.
Source: USDA.
***
The trend in sugar consumption appears to positively correlate to
incidence of heart disease. The South consumes about 50% more
sweetners than the Midwest and the West.
TC |
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