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Health Risks and Chronic Health Conditions among Arab American and White Adults in Northern California
Nadia N Abuelezam1, Abdulrahman M El-Sayed2, Sandro Galea3
1Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing, Chestnut Hill, MA.
Objectives:
To characterize the prevalence of chronic cardiovascular conditions and risk factors among Arab American adults stratified by sex and compare these with non-Hispanic Whites.
Design:
Cross-sectional study using electronic health record data from visits between January 2015 and December 2016. Age-adjusted prevalence estimates were calculated for men and women and compared using generalized linear models.
Setting:
Kaiser Permanente health plan in Northern California.
Participants:
Non-Hispanic White (N=969,566) and Arab American (N=18,072) adult members.
Main Outcome Measures:
Sex-stratified prevalence and prevalence ratios of diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia diagnosed by December 2016 and of obesity, ever smoking, and current smoking status.
Results:
Arab American men had a significantly higher prevalence of ever smoking (41.8 vs 40.8%), diabetes (17.3 vs 12.5%), and hyperlipidemia (40.8 vs 34.7%) than White men, but a significantly lower prevalence of obesity (34.4 vs 37.8%) and hypertension (30.5 vs 33.3%). Arab American women had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes (11.1 vs 8.7%) and hyperlipidemia (31.5 vs 28.3%) than White women but significantly lower prevalence of obesity (31.0 vs 34.2%), ever smoking (24.8 vs 34.5%), and hypertension (25.8 vs 28.4%).
Conclusions:
Hospital and health systems should intentionally collect data on Middle Eastern and North African ethnicity in electronic health records to identify and reduce the disparities this minority group faces.
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