Amrock SM, et al. - This study entails the description of sex and racial/ethnic disparities in a national registry of US familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients. After stratifying the population by either sex or race/ethnicity, it was found that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goal attainment and statin usage differed in a contemporary US population of FH patients. It was indicated that health disparities contribute to the undertreatment of US FH patients and in order to raise awareness of these disparities, increased efforts are warranted.

Methods

• Researchers analyzed data from 3167 adults enrolled in the CAscade SCreening for Awareness and DEtection of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (CASCADE-FH) registry.
• They used logistic regression to assess for disparities in LDL-C goals and statin use, with adjustments for covariates including age, cardiovascular risk factors, and statin intolerance.

Results

• Researchers observed in adjusted analyses that women were less likely than men to achieve treated LDL-C of <100 mg/dL (OR 0.68, 95% CI, 0.57–0.82) or ≥50% reduction from pretreatment LDL-C (OR 0.79, 95% CI, 0.65–0.96).
• They also noted that women, compared with men, were less likely to receive statin therapy (OR, 0.60, 95% CI, 0.50–0.73) and less likely to receive a high-intensity statin (OR, 0.60, 95% CI, 0.49–0.72).
• Findings also demonstrated that LDL-C goal achievement also varied by race/ethnicity: compared with whites, Asians and blacks were less likely to achieve LDL-C levels <100 mg/dL (Asians, OR, 0.47, 95% CI, 0.24–0.94; blacks, OR, 0.49, 95% CI, 0.32–0.74) or ≥50% reduction from pretreatment LDL-C (Asians, OR 0.56, 95% CI, 0.32–0.98; blacks, OR 0.62, 95% CI, 0.43–0.90).