Abstract Text: Among older American Indians (AIs), the burden of chronic diseases is rising with sharp increases in the rates of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and obesity. All of these three conditions are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death among adult AIs. The presence of multiple chronic conditions places a burden on the quality of life experienced by older persons. Few investigations have examined the impact of multiple chronic health conditions on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) among older AIs. Our objectives were to compare older AIs (50+) to their non-AI counterparts with respect to patterns of these three chronic conditions. Given that research has found higher rates of cardiovascular disease in AIs than in other ethnic and racial groups, we anticipated to find higher prevalence of these known risk factors for this disease as well a stronger negative impact on HR-QoL. Our analysis was a secondary data analysis utilizing the 1996-1998 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. AIs reported a higher percentage of diabetes and obesity, but a higher percent of non-AIs reported having hypertension. AIs were more likely to have two or all three of the conditions examined. AIs reported lower HR-QoL. A concurrent significant increase in number of selected chronic conditions and lower HR-QoL was observed in both AIs and non-AIs. A significant interaction term between the number of the conditions examined and poor HR-QoL between the two groups indicated that multiple chronic conditions had a stronger negative effect on HR-QoL among AIs.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify disparities in three common chronic physical health conditions and health-related quality of life between older American Indians and non-American Indians. 2. Assess the relationship between selected chronic physical health conditions and health-related quality of life between older American Indians and non-American Indians.
Keywords: Aging, Minority Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.