Trends in cardiovascular mortality in Spanish-surnamed, other white, and black persons in Texas, 1970--1975.

Certain categories of cardiovascular disease have significantly declined recently as causes of death. In the present investigation we describe the variation in cardiovascular mortality in Texas by ethnicity, age and sex during 1970--1975 using age-standardized proportional mortality ratios. Specifically, the question of whether the three major ethnic groups in Texas have shared equally in any changes in cardiovascular mortality is examined. Several subcategories of cardiovascular mortality are considered. Among the sex-ethnic groups both ischemic heart disease and acute myocardial infarction mortality declined less among Spanish-surnamed males and females than in their other white and black counterparts. Chronic ischemic heart disease increased in relative importance for all groups except Spanish-surnamed females, in whom it decreased. There was no significant decrease in cerebrovascular disease mortality among Spanish-surnamed males or females as there was in the other groups. These results suggest that important differences in cause-structure of mortality are occurring in the ethnic subpopulations of Texas.