Heart Disease and American Indians/Alaska Natives

American Indians/Alaska Natives, on average, are more likely to be diagnosed with heart disease than their white counterparts. In addition, American Indians/Alaska Native adults are 60% more likely to be obese than white adults, 30% more likely to have high blood pressure, and they are more likely to be current cigarette smokers than white adults.

American Indian/Alaska Native adults are 1.4 times as likely as White adults to be current cigarette smokers.
American Indian/Alaska Native adults are 1.6 times as likely as White adults to be obese.
American Indian/Alaska Native adults are 1.3 times as likely as White adults to have high blood pressure.

At a glance – Diagnosed Cases of Heart Disease:

**Age-adjusted percentages of heart disease among persons 18 years of age and over, 1999-2003**
	American Indian/Alaska Native	White	American Indian/Alaska Native/White Ratio
Men and Women	13.6	11.5	1.2
Men	13.3	12.5	1.1
Women	14.2	10.8	1.3

Source: CDC 2005. Health Characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 1999-2003. Advance Data (356), Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad356.pdf

At a glance – Diagnosed Cases of Coronary Heart Disease:

**Age-adjusted percentages of coronary heart disease among persons 18 years of age and over, 2006**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
6.8	6.6	1.0

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2006. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

At a glance – Death Rate:

**Age-Adjusted Heart Disease Death Rates per 100,000 (2005)**
	American Indians/Alaska Natives	Non-Hispanic White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
Men	173.2	262.2	0.7
Women	115.9	170.3	0.7

Source: CDC 2007. Health United States, 2007. Table 36.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf#summary

At a Glance – Risk Factors:

Overweight

NHANES data is not available.

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are overweight but not obese, 1999-2003. (Persons are considered overweight if they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or greater.)**
	American Indian/Alaska Native	White	American Indian/Alaska Native/White Ratio
Men and Women	33.2	35.6	0.9
Men	38.6	44.5	0.9
Women	28.1	27.0	1.0

Source: CDC 2005. Health Characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 1999-2003. Advance Data (356), Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad356.pdf

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are overweight but not obese, 2006. (Persons are considered overweight if they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or greater.) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
38.1	34.5	1.1

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2006. Table 31.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

Obesity

NHANES data is not available.

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are obese, 1999-2003. (Persons are considered obese if they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater.)**
	American Indian/Alaska Native	White	American Indian/Alaska Native/White Ratio
Men and Women	34.0	21.3	1.6
Men	38.5	22.3	1.7
Women	29.4	20.3	1.4

Source: CDC 2005. Health Characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 1999-2003. Advance Data (356), Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad356.pdf

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are obese, 2006. (Persons are considered obese if they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater.) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
30.9	24.7	1.3

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2006. Table 31.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

Hypertension

NHANES data is not available.

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who have high blood pressure, 1999-2003.**
	American Indian/Alaska Native	White	American Indian/Alaska Native/White Ratio
Men and Women	29.7	22.8	1.3
Men	31.6	23.1	1.4
Women	28.2	22.4	1.3

Source: CDC 2005. Health Characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 1999-2003. Advance Data (356), Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad356.pdf

Percent of adults age 18 and over with hypertension whose blood pressure is under control, 1999-2000
Not available at this time.

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who have high blood pressure, 2006. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
25.7	22.4	1.1

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2006. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

High Cholesterol

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 20 years of age and over who have high cholesterol, 1999-2002.
Not available at this time.

BRFSS

**Age-adjusted percent of adults told by a health-care provider that they had high blood cholesterol, 2003**
American Indian/Alaska Natives	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
31.2	31.5	1.0

Source: CDC 2005. Trends in Cholesterol Screening and Awareness of High Blood Cholesterol – United States, 1991-2003. MMWR 54(35): 865-870, Table 1.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5435.pdf

Cigarette Smoking

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are current cigarette smokers, 1999-2003.**
	American Indian/Alaska Native	White	American Indian/Alaska Native/White Ratio
Men and Women	33.5	23.2	1.4
Men	32.2	24.8	1.3
Women	34.7	21.7	1.6

Source: CDC 2005. Health Characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 1999-2003. Advance Data (356), Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad356.pdf

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are current cigarette smokers, 2006**
American Indian/Alaska Natives	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
26.9	22.6	1.1

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults 2006. Table 25.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

Percentage of current smokers age 18 and over with a checkup who reported receiving advice to quit smoking, 2001
Not available at this time.

**Percentage of heart attack patients given smoking cessation counseling while hospitalized, 2005**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
87.9	92.8	0.9

Source: AHRQ 2008. 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 48.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

At a Glance – Treatment:

Aspirin Therapy

**Percent of heart attack patients administered aspirin within 24 hours of admission, 2005**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
92.8	95.3	1.0

Source: AHRQ 2008. 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 43.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

**Percent of heart attack patients with aspirin prescribed at discharge, 2005**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
96.1	95.8	1.0

Source: AHRQ 2008. 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 44.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

Beta Blockers

**Percent of heart attack patients administered beta blocker within 24 hours of admission, 2005**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
88.4	91.8	0.9

Source: AHRQ 2008. 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 45.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

**Percent of heart attack patients with beta blocker prescribed at discharge, 2005**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
95.2	94.8	1.0

Source: AHRQ 2008. 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 46.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

You will need Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ to view PDF files located on this site. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat® Reader™, you can download here for free.

Content Last Modified: 6/27/2008 3:20:00 PM