Racial Disparities in Patient Characteristics and Survival After Acute Myocardial Infarction

Key Points Question Does race serve as a surrogate for socioeconomic and clinical factors, and, after adjusting for those factors, do long-term mortality rates differ between black patients and white patients following acute myocardial infarction? Findings In this cohort study of 6402 patients from 2 acute myocardial infarction registries, self-identified black patients and white patients differed in several clinical and socioeconomic characteristics. The higher the prevalence of characteristics associated with being a black patient, the higher the 5-year mortality rate, but no differences were observed between black patients and white patients with similar characteristics. Meaning A greater prevalence of characteristics associated with black race, but not race itself, was associated with higher mortality risk after acute myocardial infarction.