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. 2012 May;22(5):303-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.02.014. Epub 2012 Mar 15.

Coronary death and myocardial infarction among Hispanics in the Northern Manhattan Study: exploring the Hispanic paradox

Joshua Z Willey  1 , Carlos J Rodriguez, Yeseon Park Moon, Myunghee C Paik, Marco R Di Tullio, Shunichi Homma, Ralph L Sacco, Mitchell S V Elkind
Affiliations

Coronary death and myocardial infarction among Hispanics in the Northern Manhattan Study: exploring the Hispanic paradox

Joshua Z Willey et al. Ann Epidemiol. 2012 May.

Abstract

Purpose: Prior studies have reported that Hispanics have lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality despite a higher burden of risk factors. We examined whether Hispanic ethnicity was associated with a lower risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) coronary death (CD) and vascular death.

Methods: A total of 2671 participants in the Northern Manhattan Study without clinical CVD were prospectively evaluated. Cox models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of race-ethnicity with nonfatal MI, CD, and vascular death after adjusting for demographic and CVD risk factors.

Results: Mean age was 68.8 (10.4) years; 52.8% were Hispanic (88% Caribbean-Hispanic). Hispanics were more likely to have hypertension (73.1% vs. 62.2%, p < .001) and diabetes (22.0% vs. 13.3%, p < .001), and less likely to perform any physical activity (50.1% vs. 69.2%, p < .001) compared to non-Hispanic whites (NHW). During a mean 10 years of follow-up there were 154 nonfatal MIs, 186 CD, and 386 vascular deaths. In fully adjusted models, Hispanics had a lower risk of CD (adjusted HR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.21-0.60), and vascular death (adjusted HR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.43-0.89), but not nonfatal MI (adjusted HR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.56-1.60) when compared to NHW.

Conclusions: We found a "Hispanic paradox" for coronary and vascular deaths, but not nonfatal MI.

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