Abstract TU226: SALAM: Study of Arab-American Longitudinal Assessment of Morbidity Cardiometabolic Burden Across Age and Sex in a U.S. Health System

Abstract

Background: Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) populations remain largely invisible in U.S. cardiovascular research due to the absence of ethnicity identifiers in clinical registries and their frequent misclassification under the “Caucasian” category. Consequently, their cardiometabolic disease burden is poorly characterized. Using a validated Arab Name Algorithm 1 , we developed a deidentified electronic health record registry of individuals within a large healthcare system to describe age- and sex-specific prevalence of major cardiometabolic conditions. Methods: We analyzed data from the Houston Methodist Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Learning Health System Registry (2016–2025), identifying MENA individuals based on surname matching using a validated Arab Name Algorithm (specificity 98.9%, sensitivity 50.3%). Prevalence of diabetes, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and chronic kidney disease (CKD) was estimated across age groups and stratified by sex. Results: Among 51,013 MENA adults, prevalence of cardiometabolic conditions rose steeply with age across both sexes. Diabetes prevalence increased from <5% under age 40 to >40% among those aged ≥70 years. Hypertension and dyslipidemia exceeded 60% in older adults, while ASCVD affected more than half of men and over one-third of women by age 80. CKD prevalence increased from <5% under age 40 to nearly 45% among those ≥80 years. Obesity peaked between ages 60–70, with higher rates among women. Across all conditions, men consistently exhibited higher prevalence except for obesity. Conclusions: Using a validated name-based algorithm, we characterized cardiometabolic disease patterns among MENA adults in the U.S. The high burden observed, particularly among men and older adults, highlights the need for improved ethnicity data collection, rather than collapsing MENA individuals within White categories, and for targeted prevention in this underrecognized population.