Environment adds to hypertension in blacks

BALTIMORE, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Social environment may play a major role in the disparity between African-Americans with hypertension compared to whites with the disease, researchers said.

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore found that the difference in incidence of high blood pressure was substantially reduced when comparing groups of African-Americans and non-Hispanic whites living in similar social environments.

Previous studies have found that African-Americans tend to have an earlier onset and higher prevalence of hypertension than non-Hispanic whites.

"Our study found that nearly 31 percent of the hypertension disparity among African-Americans and non-Hispanic whites is attributable to environmental factors," lead author Roland James Thorpe Jr. said in a statement.

The study, published in the Social Science and Medicine, found that after adjusting for demographic variables, African-Americans still displayed greater odds of being hypertensive compared to non-Hispanic whites, but there was a dramatic decrease in the ratio.

"Our study concluded that race differences in social and environmental exposures partially accounted for race differences in hypertension," senior author Thomas LaVeist said in a statement.