Objective: To evaluate cardiovascular (CV) health among Arab and Jewish adults in Israel.
Methods: Participants (n=1,104) were randomly selected from the Hadera district urban population, in equal subgroups of age, gender and ethnicity (Arabs and Jews). Data collected included socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics, reported chronic morbidity and drug therapy. Further evaluation included anthropometric and blood-pressure measurements, and fasting blood sample collection. CV-health was evaluated in participants with a negative history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and included 4 factors: total-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, blood-pressure, plasma glucose; and 4 behaviors: body mass index (BMI), diet, physical activity and cigarette smoking. An ideal level was defined for each metric. Age-adjusted rates of metrics at ideal levels were calculated in sex and ethnic-specific subgroups.
Results: CV-health was evaluated in 1,002 CVD-negative participants; mean (SD) age: 49.6 (14.1); 50.3% Arabs; 47.8% men. The prevalence of ideal levels varied across the individual metrics. Arabs had lower prevalence of ideal levels of health behaviors than Jews, except for cigarette smoking among women. Arabs had also lower prevalence of health factors at ideal levels except for total-cholesterol (see table).
Conclusions: Efforts to increase healthy lifestyle and reduce disparities in risk-factor control may increase CV-health in Israel.
Table: Age-adjusted rates (%) of ideal CV-Health metrics by gender and ethnicity
