Puerto Rico, where insular isolation ended with arrival of ships and where cultural change is being hastened by jet airplanes, may supply significant data on causes of heart disease.
Groundwork has been laid for what investigators at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in San Juan hope will be a long-range study of part of the population. It has been suggested that the study might eventually be broadened to compare island residents with those Puerto Ricans living in US cities.
Among university investigators, the feeling is that this study is being done in the nick of time. The West Indies island commonwealth is undergoing major change, essentially from an agricultural to industrial economy.
Reasons For Study
Factors prompting the study were underlined about three years ago in statistics from the university, Department of Health of Puerto Rico, and US Department of Health, Education and Welfare:The coronary heart