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This is particularly true of the
NHANES Epidemiologic follow-up study results. NHANES I, a longitudinal study of over
14,000 black and white persons aged 25 to 74 years was conducted between 1982 and 1992
(5). NHANES revealed that elevated systolic blood pressure and smoking in black women were
predictive of coronary heart disease (5). Even more alarming though was the finding that
African American women aged 25 to 54 years had a higher age-adjusted risk for first
diagnosis of coronary heart disease than white women of the same ages (5). The NHANES
investigators attributed the excess risk to higher levels of identified risk factors in
African American Women. Results of this trial further suggested that if risk factor levels
in African American women were similar to that in white women, the incidence of CHD in
black women would be similar that of white women (5). |