Risk factors for coronary heart disease in African American women

There have been few studies of risk factors for coronary heart disease in A frican American women. The authors investigated factors associated with pre valent coronary heart disease in data provided by participants in the Black Women's Health Study. In 1995, 64,530 US Black women aged 21-69 years comp leted postal health questionnaires. The 352 women who reported having had a heart attack (cases) were frequency matched 5:1 on age with 1,760 women wh o had not (controls); medical record review for 35 cases indicated that two -thirds had had a heart attack and the remainder had other coronary heart d isease. Odds ratios, obtained from multiple logistic regression analyses, w ere significantly elevated for cigarette smoking, drug-treated hypertension , drug-treated diabetes mellitus, elevated cholesterol level. and history o f heart attack in a parent. High body mass index (kg/m(2)) was associated w ith coronary heart disease in the absence of control for hypertension, diab etes mellitus, and elevated cholesterol but not when they were controlled, suggesting that obesity may influence risk as a result of its effects on bl ood pressure, glucose tolerance, and cholesterol levels. Odds ratios increa sed with increasing parity and with decreasing age at first birth. These da ta suggest that important risk factors for coronary heart disease are simil ar in Black women and White women.