Disappearing differences in coronary heart disease incidence between immigrants from Yemen and other Israelis: factor or fancy?
Goldbourt, U.; Neufeld, H.N.; Medalie, J.H.; Oron, D.
Harefuah 94(1): 1-5
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 640493 Document Number: 126801
The 383 men born in the Yemen, average 47.9 plus or minus 6.7 years old, who were free of heart disease in an official Israeli survey in 1963, were examined again in 1965 and 1968; 83% of them had come to Israel before 1948. In the 5 years, incidence of heart disease among the Yemenites was equivalent to 9/1000 compared with 55/1000 in the rest of the population, a difference larger than could be explained in terms of exposure to 'risk factors'. Relative bodyweight and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly lower for Yemenites that for men of other origins; men of Yemenite and Moroccan birth had less plasma cholesterol and a higher proportion of cholesterol in high-density lipoproteins than immigrants from other Middle Eastern or European countries. The Yemenites and immigrants from other Middle-Eastern countries had higher dietary energy intakes with a higher proportion of energy from carbohydrate and less from saturated fat than those of European origin.