Ethnicity

Guardian UK - Minority ethnic patients with heart failure are more than a third more likely to die than their white counterparts, according to research.The study, by researchers at the University of Birmingham and supported by the British Heart Foundation, looked at data from more than 16,700 people from 12 existing clinical trials for heart failure patients...The researchers’ analysis found that for patients from a minority ethnic background there was a 36% higher risk of death after an average of 17 months, compared with their white counterparts.People from ethnic minorities who also had atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm irregularity, were over twice as likely to die during the 17-month follow-up period.The study showed that beta blockers, which are commonly prescribed for heart failure, were able to reduce deaths in white patients by almost a third ethnic minority ethnic patients were inconclusive.The researchers also noted that 89% of the patients included in the study were white, which highlights the under-representation of minority ethnic patients in clinical studies.