Of people living in the United States, foreign-born adults have a lower incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke than those born in the country, according to findings published March 28 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers from the CDC noted 8.2 percent of U.S. men born in the country had CHD, compared to only 5.5 percent of those born elsewhere.
Researchers noted that 4.8 percent of women born in the U.S. had CHD, compared to the 4.1 percent of those who immigrated to the country.
Additionally, the percentage of U.S.-born men and women living with stroke was roughly 2.7 percent, while the prevalence of stroke among foreign-born men and women in the U.S. was 2.1 and 1.9 percent, respectively.
“The ‘healthy immigrant effect’ could help explain the lower levels of CHD and stroke among foreign-born adults,” said Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer for Prevention and Chief of the Centers for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the AHA, in an accompanying editorial. “People who immigrate to another country are usually healthier than those who stay behind, because of self-selection or physical or legal barriers to entering the destination country.”
The researchers utilized data for 263,000 adults from the 2006 to 2014 National Health Interview Survey to compare the prevalence of CHD and stroke among U.S. adults by birthplace.
The researchers categorized birthplace as being the United States or foreign. Foreign born was grouped into six birthplace regions: Mexico/Central America/Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and Asia.
Though the main objective of the study assessed the impact of birth region on risk of CHD and stroke among U.S. adults, researchers conducted supplemental analyses to examine the impact of race and ethnicity on the association of birthplace and risk of CHD and stroke.
Compared to U.S.-born individuals, CHD was lower in individuals born in Asia, Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean. Stroke was the lowest among men born in South America or Africa and women from Europe.
The number of years people lived in the U.S. did not relate to the risk of CHD or stroke after adjusting for demographic and health characteristics.
The researchers believe that identifying high-risk populations with cardiovascular disease could help to target prevention interventions.
“As our overall population grows and becomes more diverse, knowing which groups have higher risk of disease can help guide our efforts to give all Americans—regardless of their birthplace, race, ethnicity or other descriptive characteristics—the same opportunity to improve their health and prevent disease,” Sanchez wrote. “That’s the core of health equity and the heart of our mission to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.”
As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.