heart disease compared with women who did not experience racism in these areas, The Connecticut Public reported.

However, in this study, self-reported experiences of racism in everyday life -- such as aggressive interactions with strangers -- were not associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

"Many black adults in the United States are already at higher risk for heart disease due to high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes," said Shanshan Sheehy, lead author of the study and assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine. "Current evidence suggests that racism may act as a chronic stressor in the body, and chronic stress may lead to high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke."

The researchers collected health data from the participants from 1997 to 2019. In 1997, the participants were aged between 22 and 72, and by 2019, they were aged between 40 and 90. In 1997, none had cardiovascular disease; but during the 22-year follow-up, 1,947 women developed coronary heart disease.

Dr. Sara Tabtabai, regional director of heart failure and population health at Trinity Health New England and director of the Women's Heart Program at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, said the findings were not surprising to cardiologists who specialize in population health.

"A bunch of us had been looking at the literature and knew that black patients, especially black women, had worse cardiac health," Tababai said. "We started to piece together some of the possible causes of this."

St. Francis Hospital has a long-standing Women’s Heart Program that conducts heart health research in the community, including screening for heart disease and providing health education in churches and other community settings.

Tababai said the hospital has no hard data on outcomes, but that may soon change.

“Our research work is a really powerful thing,” she said. “Looking at the results of those heart data, projects like this can improve people’s health in the community. We do have some grants coming from the community, and I think this is something we can really invest in.”

Doctors say community interventions targeting population groups affected by systemic racism can help mitigate health risks.