A comparison of risk factors for mortality from heart failure in Asian and non-Asian populations: an overview of individual participant data from 32 prospective cohorts from the Asia-Pacific Region

BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2014 May 3:14:61. doi: 10.1186/1471-2261-14-61.

Abstract

Background: Most of what is known regarding the epidemiology of mortality from heart failure (HF) comes from studies within Western populations with few data available from the Asia-Pacific region where the burden of heart failure is increasing.

Methods: Individual level data from 543694 (85% Asian; 36% female) participants from 32 cohorts in the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration were included in the analysis. Adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for mortality from HF were estimated separately for Asians and non-Asians for a quintet of cardiovascular risk factors: systolic blood pressure, diabetes, body mass index, cigarette smoking and total cholesterol. All analyses were stratified by sex and study.

Results: During 3,793,229 person years of follow-up there were 614 HF deaths (80% Asian). The positive associations between elevated blood pressure, obesity, and cigarette smoking were consistent for Asians and non-Asians. There was evidence to indicate that diabetes was a weaker risk factor for death from HF for Asians compared with non-Asians: HR 1.26 (95% CI: 0.74-2.13) versus 3.04 (95% CI 1.76-5.25) respectively; p for interaction = 0.022. Additional adjustment for covariates did not materially change the overall associations. There was no good evidence to indicate that total cholesterol was a risk factor for HF mortality in either population.

Conclusions: Most traditional cardiovascular risk factors including elevated blood pressure, obesity and cigarette smoking appear to operate similarly to increase the risk of death from HF in Asians and non-Asians populations alike.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Asia / epidemiology
  • Asian People*
  • Diabetes Mellitus / ethnology
  • Diabetes Mellitus / mortality
  • Female
  • Heart Failure / ethnology*
  • Heart Failure / mortality*
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / ethnology
  • Hypertension / mortality
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Obesity / ethnology
  • Obesity / mortality
  • Prognosis
  • Prospective Studies
  • Risk Assessment
  • Risk Factors
  • Smoking / adverse effects
  • Smoking / ethnology
  • Smoking / mortality
  • Time Factors