ASPO Abstracts
Cardiovascular Health Among Black Breast Cancer Survivors in the Women"s Circle of Health Follow-Up Study
Category: Cancer Health Disparities
Conference Year: 2022
Abstract Body:
Background: Breast cancer (BrCa) survivors have higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality compared with women without cancer. Cardiovascular health (CVH), defined by the American Heart Association which integrates 7 modifiable components (BMI, physical activity, diet, smoking, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose), has been demonstrated in predicting CVD incidence and mortality. However, CVH has not been well characterized among Black BrCa survivors, who have a greater risk of mortality than any other racial/ethnic group. Objective: To evaluate CVH in the Women's Circle of Health Follow-Up Study (WCHFS), a population-based prospective study of Black BrCa survivors in New Jersey.Methods: The current study included 720 participants diagnosed between 2012-2017 who completed follow-up 1 home interview (~24 months post diagnosis) by September 2019. Data on individual CVH components were collected via measurements, questionnaires, medical records, and/or blood samples. Using the established method, a CVH score (range: 0-14) was summed across the seven individual components (0=poor; 1=intermediate; 2=ideal) for each participant. A higher score indicates better CVH health. The analyses were repeated using multiple imputations by chained equations to complete the missing values. We also compared the CVH scores with the findings published from NHANES. Results: Among Black BrCa survivors in the WCHFS, the CVH score was normally distributed with a mean 7.5 (95% CI: 7.4-7.7) based on the imputed analysis. Results are materially the same as complete case analysis. Only 2.4% women had a high CVH score of ‚â•12 while 66.6% had a low CVH score of <8. Among all CVH components, the lowest prevalence of ideal level was for BMI, diet, and blood pressure (14.2%, 0%, and 22.8%, respectively). Black BrCa survivors from our study had lower CVH scores compared to women of all races combined from NHANES (mean [95% CI]: 8.0 [7.9-8.2]). Conclusion: We found that poor CVH health was common among Black BrCa survivors, primarily attributed to high prevalence of obesity, hypertension and poor diet. Further research should evaluate the multilevel risk factors for poor CVH to reduce the excess mortality among Black BrCa patients.
Keywords: Cardiovascular health, Breast cancer survivors, Black women