Black Men With Chest Pains Treated Less Quickly Than Whites
If you are having a heart attack and are rushed to the emergency room, does your race play a factor in the speed of your care? A new study says yes. Researchers from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at more than 19 million ER visits and concluded that white men who came into the ER complaining of angina—chest pains—were 1.6 times more likely than non-whites to be treated by a medical worker within 10 minutes. They also found that Caucasian men were more likely to receive an EKG and be prescribed medication than their African-American counterparts.
Researchers are not certain if racial discrimination is the sole reason for their findings noting that ER doctors might assume white men are more likely to have ischemic heart disease — blockage of coronary arteries that causes chest pain — than non whites. In certain situations doctors are more likely to view chest pains in non whites as being symptoms of other ailments.
Nevertheless, past studies show that black men older than 35 are 26 times more likely to die of heart disease than whites. Learn more about heart disease symptoms and warning signs at americanheart.org.
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