Acculturation and coronary heart disease among Japanese men in Hawaii

A cohort of 4653 men of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii, with traditional Japanese social and cultural lifestyles, were studied for the association of the prevalence and incidence of coronary heart disease (Honolulu Heart Program, 1971-1979). Two of four scales of acculturation were significantly as sociated with coronary heart disease prevalence independently of 11 other risk factors, but none of the acculturation scales were associated with incidence in muitivariate analyses. The difference in findings between prevalence and incidence appeared to be mostly due to the inclusion of fatal cases in the incidence data, although other explanations are possible. Measures of acculturation were also significantly associated with many of the other coronary heart disease risk factors in such a way that the more traditional Japanese men had lower serum cholesterol and uric acid, were less obese, more physically active, and smoked fewer cigarettes than the more westernized men. A comparison of bivariate and muttivariate analyses indicated that some of the acculturation scales were indirectly associated with coronary heart disease because of the confounding association with the other risk factors.