Cardiovascular disease among South Asians
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* Maria Chiu
* Jack V. Tu

We thank Garg and Verma for their comments on our article. In our study, South Asians actually had a slightly, nonsignificantly higher overall self-reported prevalence of heart disease (5.2%), compared with the Caucasian group (5.1%). However, there appeared to be a gender interaction, whereby the difference between the two groups was greater among women than men.

We agree that self-reported data on prevalence warrant further study with more objective data sources, such as clinical registries or administrative databases. There may be important ethnic differences — such as age at presentation, types of heart disease (e.g., angina, myocardial infarction v. congestive heart failure) and survival after acute cardiac events as well as recall of previous events — that influence the overall prevalence of heart disease. We hope our article will be a stimulus for additional research so appropriate interventions can be undertaken to reduce disparities in the burden of cardiovascular disease and stroke in Canadians from all ethnic groups.

## Footnotes

*   **For the full letter, go to:** [www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/182/8/E301#589780](http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/182/8/E301#589780)