Research
results soon to be published in the New
England Journal of Medicine
found that black adults were more likely than whites to suffer heart
failure. By a factor of what number were blacks at higher risk for
heart failure than whites?
1. Blacks were 3 times as likely
to suffer heart failure as whites.
2. Blacks were 10 times as
likely to suffer heart failure as whites.
3. Blacks were 20 times
as likely to suffer heart failure as whites.
The answer is number 3. Blacks are twenty times more likely to develop heart failure than whites and die decades before their white counterparts. Moreover, blacks in the 30’s and 40’s had the same rate of heart failure as whites in their 50’s and 60’s. Dr. Eric D. Peterson, a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, emphasizes that if undertaken early enough, changes in lifestyle could reduce the disparity.
Comments