cholesterol levels, kidney disease and many other heart-related problems are increasing compared to 10 years before,” Vyas adds.
‘Wake-up call’
“This is a wake-up call and we need more research like this, that highlights the disproportionate burden of cardiovascular health on minority populations,” Douglass says.
Clinical Trials: Everything you Need to Know
“I think that the more that we provide that type of clinical trial research, that we will be able to better recruit minorities into clinical trials so that we can understand the problems in a much more sophisticated way. And I think that having this type of information available to us underscores the importance of it,” Douglass adds.
For the study, the researchers compared inpatient hospital records on more than 1.3 million Black Americans hospitalized in 2007 with nearly 1.6 million hospitalized in 2017.
The investigators found the patients were younger with an average age of 30 in 2017 compared to 31 in 2007. They also had higher rates of emergency hospital admissions (nearly 77% versus 75%), and they were more likely to be male (30% in 2017 compared to 29% in 2007).
Moreover, patients in the later period were three times more likely to have type 2 diabetes with chronic complications, over twice as likely to have obesity and twice as likely to smoke tobacco, the findings showed.
When the researchers examined hospitalization outcomes, they found they were worse in 2017, even with advances in medications and improved screening and diagnostic techniques.
The team found a 30% increased risk of heart attack and heart rhythm disturbances, a 50% increased risk of stroke and a 90% increased risk of blood clot in one of the big arteries of the heart. There was also a 150% increased risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and a 200% increased risk of cardiogenic shock (the most severe form of heart failure).
Lifestyle changes help
“The government can include more resources along with the help of primary care physicians and charity organizations to have more screening options for the remote areas, or other people who cannot afford these things. Availability of screening can be very