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The development of CHD in
African American women occurs as a result of a complex interplay between risk factors
socioeconomic status, access to health care and behavioral and coping mechanisms. It has
been well documented that measures of socioeconomic status such as income, education, and
occupation are inversely related to CHD and its risk factors including; hypertension,
smoking, high blood cholesterol, physical inactivity ,obesity and diabetes mellitus (Those
risk factors that are the most worrisome in African American women) (23). Differences in
access to cardiovascular care as well as psychosocial and economic factors may be as
responsible for disparities in health outcomes between black and white women as any
genetic or biological mechanisms. |