One of the characteristics of the elevated rates of disease for minorities compared to whites is the earlier onset of illness, greater severity of disease and poorer survival. For example, a 20 year follow-up of the CARDIA study’s cohort of young adults found that incident heart failure before the age of 50 was 20 times more common in blacks than whites with the average age of onset being 39 years old.13 National data from the NHANES study also shows that hypertension occurs earlier in blacks than in whites.14 During the 1999–2002 period of this study, 63% of black adults with hypertension were younger than 60 years of age compared to 45% of their white counterparts. Moreover, for both racial groups the proportions with hypertension under age 60 in 1999–2002 was higher than during the earlier 1988–1994 data collection period (59% and 41%, respectively).
