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[PDF | 632KB]

At a glance – Diagnosed Cases of Coronary Heart Disease:

**Age-adjusted percentages of coronary heart disease among persons 18 years of age and over, 2007**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
9.8	6.2	1.6

Source: CDC 2009. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2007. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_240.pdf[PDF | 8.43MB]

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 2009. Health United States, 2008. Table 35.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf [PDF | 12.2MB]

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[PDF | 632KB]

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are overweight but not obese, 2007. (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
36.5	34.5	1.1

Source: CDC 2009. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2007. Table 31.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_240.pdf[PDF | 8.43MB]

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

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are obese, 2007. (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
33.2	24.8	1.3

Source: CDC 2009. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2007. Table 31.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_240.pdf[PDF | 8.43MB]

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

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, 2007. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
25.8	22.5	1.1

Source: CDC 2009. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2007. Table 2.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_240.pdf[PDF | 8.43MB]

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[PDF | 631KB]

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

**Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over who are current cigarette smokers, 2007**
American Indian/Alaska Natives	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
30.0	22.1	1.4

Source: CDC 2009. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults 2007. Table 25.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_240.pdf[PDF | 8.43MB]

**Age-Adjusted Percent of persons 18+ who currently smoke, 2004 - 2006**
	American Indian/Alaska Natives	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Natives /Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Male	31.5	25.5	1.2
Women	23.2	20.9	1.1

Source: CDC 2009. Health United States, 2008. Table 65.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus08.pdf [PDF | 12.2MB]

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, 2006**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
94.8	96.9	1.0

Source: 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 4_2_7.1.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr08/4_heartdiseases/T4_2_7-1.htm

At a Glance – Treatment:

Aspirin Therapy

**Percent of heart attack patients administered aspirin within 24 hours of admission, 2006**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
95.3	96.6	1.0

Source: 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 4_2_2.1
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr08/4_heartdiseases/T4_2_2-1.htm

**Percent of heart attack patients with aspirin prescribed at discharge, 2006**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
96.1	95.8	1.0

Source: 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 4_2_3.1.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr08/4_heartdiseases/T4_2_3-1.htm

Beta Blockers

**Percent of heart attack patients administered beta blocker within 24 hours of admission, 2006**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
92.6	93.4	1.0

Source: 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 4_2_4.1
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr08/4_heartdiseases/T4_2_4-1.htm

**Percent of heart attack patients with beta blocker prescribed at discharge, 2006**
American Indians/Alaska Natives	White	American Indians/Alaska Natives/White Ratio
96.0	96.3	1.0

Source: 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 4_2_5.1
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr08/4_heartdiseases/T4_2_5-1.htm

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Content Last Modified: 7/28/2009 12:39:00 PM