New research suggests metabolic abnormalities could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease more so among black women than among white women.
Past studies that have determined metabolic syndrome does not raise cardiovascular risk in women have focused primarily on white participants, but this new research suggests it could elevate risk in black women, the American Heart Association reported.
To make their findings, a team of researchers looked at cardiovascular disease risk in relations to weight, metabolic health status, and ethnicity, in 14,364 participants from the Women's Health Initiative. All of the women who participated in the study were between the ages of 50 and 79; about 47 percent were white; 36 percent were black; and 18 percent were Hispanic. Over the course of the 13 year follow-up period, 1,101 women had a cardiovascular event for the first time.
The researchers found black women who were obese and had two or three metabolic abnormalities (such as "higher waist circumference, elevated triglycerides, low levels of 'good' cholesterol, high blood pressure and impaired glucose metabolism") were 117 percent more likely to develop a cardiovascular disease; overweight women with metabolic abnormalities had a 77 percent higher risk of heart disease. Among white women with two or three metabolic abnormalities, being overweight or obese came with similar cardiovascular risks to what was observed in participants of a healthy weight.
"It appeared that the cardiovascular disease risk was elevated in black women by the presence of only two or three metabolic abnormalities to a degree that would require four or more metabolic abnormalities among white women," said Michelle Schmiegelow, study lead author and a Ph.D. student and research fellow in the cardiology department at University Hospital Gentofte in Denmark.
The findings suggest that in postmenopausal women, metabolic syndrome may underestimate cardiovascular disease risk in black women and overestimated it in white women. The researchers suggest physicians should take an individualized approach to assessing cardiovascular disease risk based on metabolic abnormalities.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of the American Heart Association.
