GREATER INCIDENCE OF HOSPITALIZED MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICANS THAN NON-HISPANIC WHITES - THE CORPUS-CHRISTI HEART PROJECT, 1988-1992

Background Since Mexican Americans have adverse patterns of risk facto rs for myocardial infarction relative to non-Hispanic whites, the inci dence of myocardial infarction should be greater among Mexican America ns than among non-Hispanic whites. This expectation conflicts with rep orts generated from death certificate registries. Methods and Results Data regarding myocardial infarction attacks and incident events were collected for a 4-year period in the Corpus Christi Heart Project, a p opulation-based surveillance project for hospitalized coronary heart d isease events. For both women and men, Mexican Americans experienced g reater hospitalization rates for both attacks and incident events than non-Hispanic whites. Age-adjusted attack rate ratios comparing Mexica n Americans with non-Hispanic whites were 1.59 (95% CI, 1.05 to 2.41) and 1.31 (95% CI, 1.18 to 1.45) among women and men, respectively. Cor responding incidence ratios were 1.52 (95% CI, 1.28 to 1.80) and 1.25 (95% CI, 1.10 to 1.42). Conclusions This is the first report documenti ng greater incidence of hospitalized myocardial infarction among Mexic an Americans than among non-Hispanic whites, a biologically plausible finding given the risk factor patterns observed in the Mexican-America n population. Public health planners and clinicians should be aware of the importance of myocardial infarction as a health problem in the Me xican-American population. Culturally appropriate prevention strategie s should be developed for and tested in Mexican-American populations.