Comparison of incidences of congestive heart failure in older African-Americans, Hispanics, and whites.

In a prospective study of 2,893 African-Americans, Hispanics, and whites, mean age 81 years, at 43-month follow-up, congestive heart failure (CHF) developed in 194 of 686 African-Americans (28%), in 67 of 257 Hispanics (26%), and in 533 of 1,950 whites (27%) (p = NS). The Cox regression model showed that significant independent risk factors for CHF were male gender (risk ratio = 1.4, p = 0.0001); hypertension (risk ratio = 2.5, p = 0.0001); coronary artery disease (risk ratio = 4.0, p = 0.0001); diabetes mellitus (risk ratio = 1.6, p = 0.0001); and age (risk ratio = 1.05, p = 0.0001).