CDC - Media Relations - Press Release

Fact Sheet

May 17, 2005

The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke Among American Indians and Alaska Natives 2005

An Overview of the Atlas
The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke Among American Indians and Alaska Natives documents geographic disparities in heart disease and stroke mortality and risk factors among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The Atlas includes:

County-level maps of heart disease and stroke mortality.

State-level maps of eight self-reported risk factors for heart disease and stroke including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cholesterol screening, diabetes, cigarette smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and poor health.

Tables with state-specific prevalence of the eight risk factors for American Indians and Alaska Natives as well as for the total U.S. population.

National comparisons of risk factor prevalence among American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders, blacks, Hispanics, and whites.

Atlas Health Indications
The county-level maps of heart disease and stroke death rates indicate that, for American Indians and Alaska Natives, there is a nearly five-fold gap between counties with the highest and lowest rates of heart disease and stroke. High stroke death rates were found primarily in Northwestern counties and Alaska, while high heart disease death rates were located largely in the counties of the northern plains.

The geographic patterns of the self-reported risk factors varied substantially:

Obesity: Highest prevalence tended to be located in the northern region of the country.

Diabetes: Appeared to be a concentration of high-rate states in the Midwest.

Cholesterol screening: Lowest prevalence was found mostly in the western states.

Other Key findings:

There is nearly a five fold gap between counties with the highest and those with the lowest rates of heart disease and stroke mortality.

The highest heart disease death rates were located largely in the counties of the northern plains, e.g. within the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The highest stroke death rates were found primarily in northwestern counties (e.g. within the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, Alaska) along with counties within Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Geographic patterns of the self-reported risk factors varied substantially. For obesity, the highest prevalence tended to be located in the northern region of the country, for diabetes there appeared to be a concentration of high-rate states in the Midwest, and for cholesterol screening the lowest prevalence was found mostly in the western states. For other risk factors the geographic patterns were less distinct.

Comparisons of risk factor prevalence between American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders, blacks, Hispanics and whites indicated that American Indians and Alaska Natives had either the highest or the second highest prevalence for six of the eight self-reported risk factors included in the Atlas (i.e. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, cigarette smoking, obesity, and poor health).

Heart disease death rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives (157.1 per 100,000) were 20 percent higher than the total US population (130.5 per 100,000) during the years 1996-1998.

Stroke death rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives (29.5 per 100,000) were 14 percent higher than the total U.S. population (25.9 per 100,000) during the years 1996-1998.

National prevalence and the range of prevalence among the states for American Indians and Alaska Natives for each self-reported risk factor

This publication is the fourth in a series of CDC atlases related to heart disease and stroke. It is the first to focus on geographic patterns of heart disease and stroke mortality and risk factors for a specific racial/ethnic group in the United States. To obtain copies of the Atlas please contact CDCā€™s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion press office at 770-488-5131.