ABSTRACT
Regarding race and ethnicity, there are much greater differences in the distribution of risk factor levels within a specific race and ethnic group than between USA populations4. There are also very large differences in levels of risk factors for IHD between specific ethnic migrant populations such as black people in Africa versus those in the USA, or Japanese people in Japan versus those in Hawaii and California. Differences in distribution of risk factors and IHD between racial and ethnic groups are a function of the frequency of specific genotypes and interaction with environmental factors. Several of the most important differences between racial groups are higher blood pressure, lower triglycerides and higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol among black people, higher prevalence of diabetes and insulin resistance among Mexican Americans and American Indians, and higher triglyceride levels among the Japanese. Many of the reported ethnic differences in risk factors and IHD in USA populations are primarily a function of differences in education, socioeconomic variations, and utilization of preventive and clinical treatments4.
