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Objective Studies assessing the risk of developing CVD between different racial groups in the United States have reached varying conclusions. The purpose of this study was to identify risk for CVD using the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) between racial/ethnic groups. A secondary aim of this study was to compare risk for CVD based on SES status/poverty ratio. Methods A cross-sectional data analysis was conducted using the 2015-2020 NHANES datasets using individuals aged 18 to 79 years. Sample weights were assigned by NHANES researchers to each participant allowing researchers to generalize results to all non-institutionalized US civilians. Results Mexican Americans (MA) had the lowest average FRS and significantly lower CVD risk than all other racial groups, except NH Asian. NH Asians had the second lowest FRS and significantly lower risk than NH Blacks and NH Whites, but their risk was similar to other Hispanic or the other/multi-racial groups. NH Blacks showed no significant difference in FRS compared to NH Whites, other Hispanic, and other/multi-racial groups. NH Whites were not statistically different from other Hispanic or other/multi-racial groups. Other Hispanic and multi-racial groups did not exhibit statistically significant differences. Overall, Mexican Americans had the lowest FRS whereas NH Whites had the highest. Conclusions NH whites demonstrated the highest CVD risk according to FRS, as the oldest racial/ethnic group in the cohort. SES did not consistently predict FRS differences between racial/ethnic groups. These findings suggest a need to further explore FRS as a means of identifying individuals who are at high risk of developing CVD.
Lifestyle modification has been shown to improve cardiovascular health. This cross-sectional study investigated the association of number of healthy lifestyle behaviors with hypertension across racial/ethnic categories using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2010. The study population consisted of 4,363 individuals aged 40 years or older. Low risk lifestyle behaviors were assessed to obtain a health behavior score ranging from 0 to 5. Hypertension was defined based on average blood pressure measurements or current use of antihypertensive medication. The overall hypertension prevalence was 41%, with the highest prevalence in blacks (54%) and lowest in Mexican Americans (35%). Based on multivariable-adjusted logistic regression the odds of hypertension were significantly lower for whites with 3 (OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.77) and 4-5 (OR=0.53, 95% CI: 0.35, 0.80) healthy lifestyle behaviors, and for blacks who had 4-5 (OR=0.35, 95% CI: 0.18, 0.72) vs. 0-1 healthy lifestyle behaviors. There was no statistically significant association between number of healthy lifestyle behaviors and odds of hypertension in Mexican Americans. These results suggest that healthy lifestyle behaviors are associated with lower prevalence of hypertension in whites and blacks, but additional research is needed to identify protective factors for Mexican Americans.