NASHVILLE, Feb. 6 -- Vital statistics may not be so vital in determining the impact of stroke among Mexican Americans, according to researchers.
In a presentation today at the 24th American Heart Association International Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation, researchers say that vital statistics on Mexican Americans -- the fastest growing minority population in the United States -- may underestimate the devastating effect of stroke on this population.
The researchers focused on Corpus Christi, Tex., a community of approximately 300,000 people that is about equally distributed between Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites. They confirmed 115 stroke victims out of 1,354 hospitalizations of people who had symptoms suggestive of stroke.
They found that Mexican Americans between the ages of 45 to 59 had more than triple the risk of having a stroke than non-Hispanic whites. Mexican Americans between the ages of 60-74 had slightly more than double the risk of stroke, while those 75 and older had about the same risk as non-Hispanic whites.
"Stroke is a critical disease affecting the Mexican-American population and public health measures should address this problem," says the studys senior scientist, Lewis Morgenstern, M.D., of the University of Texas, Houston. "This important segment of the society has a high rate of stroke, particularly in younger adults. That's important, because if we dont do something about it, were going to have a lot of people disabled, unable to work and creating a larger burden on our healthcare system."
According to statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the estimated crude stroke prevalence for Mexican Americans is about 1.1 percent for men and 0.8 percent for women. The estimates for non-Hispanic whites are 2.2 percent for men and 1.9 percent for women. Also, according to NCHS vital statistics, 5,125 Hispanics died of stroke in 1996, the latest year for which statistics are available.
The researchers say that one reason that widely-accepted statistics may not provide an accurate portrayal of strokes impact is that there may be variances in how Mexican Americans are counted and how their cause of death is coded.
"It happens quite often that Hispanics are counted as non-Hispanic whites, or they may be coded for something other than a stroke as a cause of death," says Morgenstern. "Our study was much more rigorous in determining ethnicity and cause of death."
As risk factors, obesity and physical inactivity are more of a burden for Mexican Americans than for non-Hispanic whites. According to the American Heart Associations 1999 Heart and Stroke Statistical Update, in Mexican-American adults ages 20-74, 67.1 percent of men and 67.6 percent of women are overweight, and 23.1 percent of men and 34.2 percent of women are obese. In comparison, for non-Hispanic whites, 59.6 percent of men and 45.5 percent of women are overweight, 20 percent of men and 22.4 percent of women are obese.
"We thought what we found was important, because we know that Hispanics have a higher prevalence of risk factors such as diabetes and high alcohol consumption, so why wouldnt they have more strokes," says Morgenstern. "The vital statistics don't show the relationship, but our research found that they did have more strokes."
This research is only a small step in determining the true impact of stroke upon Mexican Americans, say the scientists. A larger, long-term study of stroke in cities with large minority populations is needed to fully understand the burden of stroke on Mexican Americans, they say.
Co-authors are Theodore H. Wein, M.D.; Melinda A. Smith, M.P.H.; Lemuel A. Moye, M.D., Ph.D.; and Dilip K. Pandey, M.D., all of the University of Texas, Houston.
Media advisory: Dr. Morgenstern can be reached by phone at 713-500-7078, by fax at 713-500-7019 or by e-mail at lmorgens@neuro.med.uth.tmc.edu. (Please do not publish numbers.)