Table 2.
Racial Differences in Patient Beliefs about Statins, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease in African American vs. Caucasian Adultsa
| Survey Question | Overall (n=5689) | Primary Prevention (n=2482) | Secondary Prevention (n=3207) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| African American |
Caucasian | p-value | African American |
Caucasian | p-value | African American |
Caucasian | p-value | |
| Worry about disease and cholesterolb | |||||||||
| How often do you think or worry that you may have a heart attack or stroke? (%) | 0.005 | 0.23 | 0.001 | ||||||
| Often | 90 (13.4%) | 433 (9.4%) | 32 (9.0%) | 123 (6.5%) | 58 (18.4%) | 310 (11.5%) | |||
| Occasionally | 195 (29.1%) | 1,341 (29.2%) | 104 (29.3%) | 571 (30.2%) | 91 (28.8%) | 770 (28.6%) | |||
| Rarely or never | 386 (57.5%) | 2,811 (61.3%) | 219 (61.7%) | 1,195 (63.3%) | 167 (52.8%) | 1,616 (59.9%) | |||
| How do you think your risk of heart attack or stroke compares with other men/women your age? (% slightly higher to much worse) | 213 (28.6%) | 1,735 (36.2%) | <0.001 | 99 (25.0%) | 618 (31.0%) | 0.009 | 114 (32.7%) | 1,117 (39.9%) | 0.02 |
| People with high cholesterol are more likely to have a heart attack | 623 (77.3%) | 3,954 (81.0%) | 0.02 | 360 (80.0%) | 1,640 (80.7%) | 0.73 | 263 (73.9%) | 2,314 (81.2%) | 0.001 |
| People don’t need to worry about their cholesterol if they have never had a heart attack or other heart problem. | 71 (8.8%) | 404 (8.3%) | 0.61 | 41 (9.1%) | 154 (7.6%) | 0.27 | 30 (8.4%) | 250 (8.8%) | 0.83 |
| Statin efficacy | |||||||||
| Statin medications are effective in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke | 564 (70.0%) | 3,635 (74.4%) | 0.008 | 311 (69.1%) | 1,441 (70.9%) | 0.45 | 253 (71.1%) | 2,194 (77.0%) | 0.01 |
| Statin safety | |||||||||
| Statins are safe medications | 292 (36.2%) | 2,800 (57.3%) | <0.001 | 145 (32.2%) | 1,112 (54.7%) | <0.001 | 147 (41.3%) | 1,688 (59.2%) | <0.001 |
| I think statins can cause diabetes | 61 (7.6%) | 299 (6.1%) | 0.12 | 26 (5.8%) | 120 (5.9%) | 0.92 | 35 (9.8%) | 179 (6.3%) | 0.01 |
| I think statins can cause muscle aches or pain | 216 (26.8%) | 1,913 (39.2%) | <0.001 | 96 (21.3%) | 728 (35.8%) | <0.001 | 120 (33.7%) | 1,185 (41.6%) | 0.004 |
| I think statins can cause liver damage | 157 (19.5%) | 1,406 (28.8%) | <0.001 | 67 (14.9%) | 568 (28.0%) | <0.001 | 90 (25.3%) | 838 (29.4%) | 0.11 |
| I think statins can cause memory loss | 101 (12.5%) | 558 (11.4%) | 0.36 | 47 (10.4%) | 206 (10.1%) | 0.85 | 54 (15.2%) | 352 (12.3%) | 0.13 |
| Clinician trust | |||||||||
| How much would you say you trust your doctors’ decisions about your medical care? (% generally trust or completely trust) | 663 (87.0%) | 4,579 (94.7%) | <0.001 | 352 (85.2%) | 1,906 (94.7%) | <0.001 | 311 (89.1%) | 2,673 (94.7%) | <0.001 |
a
Statin-related beliefs and perceptions are presented here for African Americans vs. Caucasians, categorized by worries about disease, beliefs about efficacy, beliefs about safety, clinician trust and side effect experiences.
b
Responses presented are collected from patient survey questions asked on a five point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, results shown are the % of participants who reported agree to strongly agree