Heart Disease in African American Older Population

Cultural Community

Culture population: African American population aged 65+.

Rationale:

• Race as a major risk factors in terms of healthcare provision;
• Older adults are exposed to more health risks due to the natural process of health deterioration.

Cultural need:

• Poor access to healthcare;
• Undermining healthcare risks in the African American community.

Approved health issue: heart disease.

• Heart disease as one of the major risk factors for African American community.

Health Issue

Healthy People 2030:

• HDS-01 – Increase overall cardiovascular health in adults (Healthy People 2030, n.d.)

Rationale:

• Heart disease incidence rates among older adults;
• African Americans’ predisposition to hypertension and heart issues.

Importance: Increasing rates of heart disease as a leading cause of death in the state.

Clinical Impact

Relation to clinical practice:

• The importance of understanding heart disease;
• Realization of cultural and ethnic peculiarities;
• Prevention of heart disease incidence;

Public health and clinical community:

• African Americans’ perception of heart disease;
• Public health preventative initiatives in the state;
• High rates of heart disease in the area caused by lack of education;
• Promotion of healthy lifestyle as one of the ways to address the community and health disease issue.

Impact on patients:

• 1 in 4 deaths caused by heart disease in the US (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020);
• 23,5% of deaths among non-Hispanic Black Americans caused by heart disease (CDC, 2020).

Best Practice Tips

Polypharmacy and inappropriate medication intake as an issue among African Americans living with a heart disease.

Researchers suggest revising mediation prescription according to the Beers Criteria (avoiding inappropriate medications in older adults) (Bazargan et al., 2018).

Lack of public health education as a leading cause of heart disease maltreatment due to patient’s misconception of condition.

Researchers suggest promoting nursing education as means of encouraging African American older community to prevent the negative outcome of heart disease (Der Ananian et al., 2018).

Educational information

Explanation of the African Americans’ predisposition for health disease in order to secure better treatment options in the future.

• Best practice tips include:
  • Feedback and treatment adjustment according to the needs of African Americans with hearth disease;
  • Regular medication intake check.
• Ethical Issues:
  • The issue of finance among disadvantaged patients that requited additional nursing intervention in the process.

References

1. Bazargan, M., Smith, J. L., & King, E. O. (2018). Potentially inappropriate medication use among hypertensive older African-American adults. BMC Geriatrics, 18(1), 1-9. Web.
2. Der Ananian, C., Winham, D. M., Thompson, S. V., & Tisue, M. E. (2018). Perceptions of heart-healthy behaviors among African American Adults: A mixed methods study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(11). Web.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2020). Heart disease facts. Web.
4. Healthy People 2030. (n.d.). Improve cardiovascular health in adults — HDS‑01. Web.