Higher morbidity levels in African Nova Scotians

A community of African Nova Scotians on Canada's east coast had higher morbidity levels of type 2 diabetes, circulatory disease and psychiatric disorders compared with white communities in the province, found a retrospective cohort study by researchers from Dalhousie University and Australia's Griffith University. This study allowed comparisons between African diaspora in North America and the white population in similar communities, both with universal health care. Previous US studies have looked at data for people without universal access to health care.

Disease rates were 13-43% higher in Preston, Nova Scotia than for the province as a whole, and family physician and specialist visits were generally also higher compared with other communities.

"These findings cannot be explained by recent immigration or language, given the history of African Nova Scotians," state Dr. Steve Kisely and coauthors. "Similarly, they cannot be explained by socio-economic characteristics or geographic distance to a hospital, given that we took these factors into account in our analyses."

A 3-generation family history can serve as a simple, useful tool to identify patients at increased risk of common diseases, say Drs. Vence Bonham and Erin Ramos from the National Human Genome Research Institute, US National Institutes of Health in a related commentary. Such tools provide better information for individualized care than the patient's racial or ethnic background.

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal