NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Compared with white women, Hispanic women develop risk factors for heart disease about a decade earlier, according to a presentation today at the American Heart Association's 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

"There has been a long-held belief - called the 'Hispanic paradox'-- that Hispanics" are less likely to have cardiac risk factors, heart attacks or strokes, even though they are more often economically disadvantaged and less likely to visit doctors, factors known to be associated with a worse health status, Dr. John C. Teeters told Reuters Health.

"But in actual clinical practice, we see earlier (heart attacks) and strokes among Hispanics," added the cardiologist, from the University of Rochester in New York.

To formally assess differences between Hispanics and whites, Teeters and his associates conducted free community health assessment screenings in locales likely to draw in Hispanic women, such as churches, community centers and outpatient clinics.

In total, 79 Hispanic women and 91 Caucasian women attended the screenings.

The investigators found that the white women were a decade older than the Hispanics (63 versus 53 years). Nevertheless, the prevalence of many cardiac risk factors was the same between the two groups, including hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, high cholesterol and excess abdominal fat.

It appears that Hispanics develop cardiac risk factors 10 years earlier than whites, they note.

Hispanics were also more likely to have elevations in higher blood pressure, but not high enough to be considered hypertension, and lower physical activity levels, the research team notes in their meeting abstract.

Teeters said that these disparities are probably caused by both genetics and lifestyle.

"The bottom line," he added, "is that the 'Hispanic paradox' is most likely incorrect," and physicians should be more aggressive about recognizing and treating cardiovascular risk factors in Hispanics women.