Hypertension in Vietnamese Americans - Research Paper Example

There is a great need for health education on alcohol use, diet, smoking and cardiovascular disease among Vietnamese Americans. HTN is a chronic and prevalent condition and in 1995, it was found to be affecting over 60 million people in the US but this figure is expected to have risen or even doubled over the past 20 years. Cardiovascular disease is associated with a number of risk factors like diet, family history, biological predisposition, and smoking. Lack of physical exercises has also been found to contribute to this.

Among these factors, smoking has been noted as the major risk factor in HTN patients. Information about HTN prevention and management is of particular importance to Vietnamese Americans because smoking is extremely common in Vietnam, especially among men and this figure is as high as 53% (Duong et al, 2001). Information about Vietnamese Americans’ health status is of importance to the American health care system because of the growing number of this population. A number of risk factors such as smoking, diet, family history, and biologic predisposition have been associated with cardiovascular disease.

Kaplan (1997) listed smoking as. Some of the characteristics associated with smoking among Vietnamese are that smoking increases with age, raw tobacco is accessible from the local Vietnamese markets and, Vietnamese in Alabama, Florida Gulf Coast region and Mississippi smoked an unfiltered hand-rolled cigarette. This means that not only do Vietnamese Americans smoke but also, they smoke more dangerous types of cigarettes. Apart from smoking, the prevalence of other risk factors is also high among Vietnamese men compared to other US communities.