Cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects Black Americans.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. There is a larger percentage of Black adults (47%) who suffer from this disease than white adults (36%). Social factors, social determinants of health and other factors are catalysts for a lot of these disparities.
Dr. Kobina Wilmot with Novant Health Heart and Vascular Institute-Mooresville said that there are a lot of risk factors that minority groups face that often times white individuals won’t encounter.
“Generally, the black community has higher burdens of risk factors,” Wilmot said. “So, we have more hypertension, we have more diabetes, we have more obesity, and when you see that in the clinic, we actually see a lot of inertia in minority patients. So, you might see a lot of these conditions not managed as aggressively as it might be in other populations.”
Wilmot said oftentimes this is caused by a long history of mistrust by the African American community in the medical field — and for good reason.
“There is a lot of mistrust in the medical system in minority populations,” Wilmot said. “In research, we see a lot less Black patients involved in major studies because they are probably worried they are going to be guinea pigs. That is one major issue that there is less trust in the Black community of the medical field.”
Wilmot added there are significantly fewer Black physicians compared to other races. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, only 5.7% of U.S. doctors are Black, which can heighten the level of mistrust.
“Not all minority patients live in this inner city,” Wilmot said, “but generally, where there’s rural or inner city, Black patients tend to have less providers available. There’s a lot less Black physicians, because Black physicians, both male and female, are more likely to serve their communities. So unfortunately, if you have a smaller pipeline of providers in college or STEM programs, it actually leads to less providers down the pipe who will then become physicians.”
One way to prevent cardiovascular disease is a clean/healthy diet, but that is often a challenge when people don’t live near a grocery store.
“If a patient doesn’t have the access or the to, for example, good healthy food options,” Wilmot said, “or they don’t have the funds, it’s hard to keep telling somebody, ‘Oh, you should eat greens and you should eat this.’ But if they live in a food desert or there’s no options, then that becomes a bigger, more difficult barrier to their healthiness. All these things together probably compound and make it more difficult for patients of color to do well.”
According to the World Heart Federation, 80% of premature heart disease and strokes are preventable with lifestyle changes. Wilmot says he sees it daily.
“This is a big reason that we make the drive to try to add healthiness at a younger age and to teach people to be healthier younger is important,” he said. “We’re seeing a kind of epidemic of obesity and epidemic of diabetes. And then the associated problems with that is if you have more of those at a younger age, patients … have more cardiovascular disease. And we see that more and more in younger Black patients.”
February was American Heart Month, but the topic should be discussed year-round, because heart disease doesn’t happen only in one month.
“One of the most important things to remember,” Wilmot said, “and then we try to remind people, is that although people probably fear other conditions… heart disease is the number one killer in the world, and it’s the number one killer in America, number one killer of Black patients, number one killer of men, women, you name it. And although we’ve had significant improvements in the last 40 years, we still have it.
“If we live a healthy lifestyle, we’re more likely to do well. So, we have to think about that, and we want to be around for our loved ones. And, also to encourage our other loved ones so that they live long lives as well.”
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