Research Highlights :
Embargoed until 3 p.m. CT/4 p.m. ET, Thursday March 6, 2025
NEW ORLEANS, March 6, 2025 — Asian American, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations experienced differences in both cardiovascular disease predicted risk and risk factors, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2025 . The meeting will be held in New Orleans, March 6-9, 2025, and features the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle.
Previous research has noted important differences in the prevalence of heart disease and stroke risk factors among AANHPI subgroups, including an elevated death rate from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults compared to non-Hispanic white adults in the U.S. Additionally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults were 10% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than non-Hispanic white adults in 2014.
“Historically, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander populations have frequently been grouped together as a single, homogenous racial and ethnic group in clinical and epidemiologic research, which masks important variations in both risk factor prevalence and disease burden,” said lead study author Rishi V. Parikh, M.P.H., a senior research analyst at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Pleasanton. “Despite being the fastest growing population in the U.S., existing studies about Asian subgroups remain limited by inadequate sample size and exclusion of some major disaggregated subgroups, as well as a lack of long-term follow up.”
In the PANACHE (Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and Asian American Cardiovascular Health Epidemiology) study, researchers analyzed health records from 2012 through 2022 for approximately 700,000 adults enrolled in large private health systems in California and Hawaii. Participants in the study included adults who self-identified as Chinese, Filipino, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, other Southeast Asian (including Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, Hmong, Burmese, Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean) or South Asian (including Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Nepali or Bhutanese).
Researchers compared the prevalence of traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors among adults belonging to only one of the AANHPI subgroups who had not been previously diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. For direct comparison, the researchers also analyzed the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors for 2 million non-Hispanic white adults in the same health system databases.
The analysis found:
“At the individual patient level, our findings along with previous work suggest that regular monitoring of risk factors like blood pressure and cholesterol may be helpful for early detection of increased risk and prevention of cardiovascular disease among Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations,” said study co-author Alan S. Go, M.D., an associate director of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research (Cardiovascular and Metabolic Conditions Research).
“A next step for the PANACHE study will be a population-based survey to describe risk factors not routinely available in the electronic health record (such as immigration history, generational status, employment history, other social determinants of health, experiences of discrimination, acculturation, diet, physical activity, and access to health care services and other resources) that may be unique to each subgroup and how they may influence the risk of cardiovascular disease. These additional data will help us understand sources of health disparities and inform tailored cardiovascular prevention strategies for AANHPI individuals, both in the clinic and in the community.”
Study details, background and design:
The study had several limitations, including that it may not be fully representative of adults without health insurance, who live in other areas of the U.S., or those who live outside the U.S. In addition, health measurements were collected through routine clinical care via electronic health records, which may not include adults who do not use health care services or those who face barriers to accessing health care. Future studies will involve examining underlying factors that may contribute to the diverse risks among various AANHPI subgroups, the researchers said.
“While cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death for all Americans, understanding differences among specific population groups can identify gaps in monitoring and management of risk factors, such as obesity, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes,” said Sadiya S. Khan, M.D., M.Sc., FAHA, chair of the writing group for the Association’s 2023 scientific statement for the PREVENT risk calculator tool. Khan is the Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology and an associate professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine, both in Chicago, and was not involved in the study.
“These findings further underscore that Asian Americans represent a diverse and heterogeneous group, and research should prioritize inclusion and appropriate identification of Asian Americans and various subgroups to improve cardiovascular health for all.”
Moderated Poster Presentation MP32 in Session MP06 Cardiometabolic Health and Disorders is Friday, March 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. CT.
Co-authors, their disclosures and funding sources are listed in the abstract.
See Also: Additional abstract presentations (presentations P1018, P1085, P2085) at the Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions from the PANACHE study will report on newly diagnosed cardiovascular disease cases during the 11-year 2012-2023 study period.
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The American Heart Association’s EPI | Lifestyle Scientific Sessions 2025 is the world’s premier meeting dedicated to the latest advances in population-based science. The meeting is Thursday through Sunday, March 6-9, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. The primary goal of the meeting is to promote the development and application of translational and population science to prevent heart disease and stroke and foster cardiovascular health. The sessions focus on risk factors, obesity, nutrition, physical activity, genetics, metabolism, biomarkers, subclinical disease, clinical disease, healthy populations, global health, and prevention-oriented clinical trials. The Councils on Epidemiology and Prevention and Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health (Lifestyle) jointly planned the EPI | Lifestyle Scientific Sessions2025. Follow the conference on X at #EPILifestyle25 .
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