​Define inherent risk factors. Identify four major inherent risk factors for CVD, and summarize one or more characteristics of each.

A. Inherent risk factors come from physiological and/or genetic conditions that cannot be changed readily, like advancing age, family history, gender, and ethnic background.
1. People with inherent risk factors, if identified, can minimize their overall risk profile.
2. Though they cannot control their inherent risk factors, they can control other factors like hypertension, diet, and smoking.
B. Advancing age is the primary risk factor for CVD.
1. For every 10 years older they get, older adults' chance of dying from CVD more than doubles.
a. a.e.g. men >85 are 2.7 times more likely to die of CVD than men aged 75-84, and
b. women >85 are c. 3.7 times more likely to die of CVD than women aged 75-84.
C. Family history
1. People with a history of CVD in their families are more likely to die of CVD.
2. People with a parent who had a heart attack are more likely to have a heart attack.
3. Familial risk results from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.
D. Gender
1. Gender, albeit an inherent risk factor, is complicated by many related social and behavioral conditions.
a. Hence variation in risk for women and men may/may not be inherent.
2. Risk was similar for women and men in 1920, but a gender gap, with men dying younger from CVD than women, emerged in the mid-20th century and continues today.
3. Lifestyle accounts for much of the gender gap in CVD.
a. Men have higher rates in their youth of unhealthy lifestyle factors.
b. The great variability of gender differences in CVD deaths by country imply behavioral factors rather than inherent biological factors.
E. Ethnic background
1. African Americans have a much higher risk for CVD death than other Americans.
a. Known behavioral, economic, or social risk factors are implicated:
b. The INTERHEART Study showed CVD risk factors are the same worldwide.
2. High blood pressure is the strongest risk factor for African Americans.
a. Higher cardiac reactivity, secondary to ongoing racial discrimination experiences, is implicated in higher hypertension rates.