Cholesterol Control in Ethnic Groups
Reported November 16, 2004
(Ivanhoe Newswire)–According to new research, American ethnic groups are less likely to have their bad cholesterol controlled to recommended levels than their white counterparts.
Among people with high cholesterol, Latinos were 36-percent less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have properly controlled cholesterol. Non-Hispanic blacks were 28- percent less likely.
The study, complied at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston -Salem, N.C., also shows Chinese Americans were 21-percent less likely than white Americans to meet the criteria for drug therapy.
Only one in five Americans who qualify to take drugs to lower their high cholesterol levels have their LDL cholesterol under control, according to the findings.
Researchers say, The implications of this study are that high cholesterol is very common, treatment is far from ideal and disparities in control persist.
According to the study, a little more than half of the participants in the trial appropriately treated for high cholesterol had those levels under control.
Investigators examined the cholesterol levels of more than 6,500 participants in the ongoing Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis taking place in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St. Paul, New York City and Winston-Salem, N.C
SOURCE: American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2004, New Orleans, Nov. 7-10, 2004
