An international comparative study of blood pressure in populations of European vs. African descent

Richard S Cooper¹ , Katharina Wolf-Maier¹ , Amy Luke¹ , Adebowale Adeyemo² , José R Banegas³ , Terrence Forrester⁴ , Simona Giampaoli⁵ , Michel Joffres⁶ , Mika Kastarinen⁷ , Paola Primatesta⁸ , Birgitta Stegmayr⁹ and Michael Thamm¹⁰

¹Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL, USA

²Department of Pediatrics, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

³Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

⁴Tropical Medicine Research Institute, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica

⁵Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Laboratorio di Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Rome, Italy

⁶Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

⁷Department of Public Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland

⁸Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London Medical School, London, UK

⁹Department of Medicine, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden

¹⁰Robert-Koch Institut, Berlin, Germany

author email corresponding author email

BMC Medicine 2005, 3:2doi:10.1186/1741-7015-3-2


Published:	5 January 2005

Abstract

Background

The consistent finding of higher prevalence of hypertension in US blacks compared to whites has led to speculation that African-origin populations are particularly susceptible to this condition. Large surveys now provide new information on this issue.

Methods

Using a standardized analysis strategy we examined prevalence estimates for 8 white and 3 black populations (N = 85,000 participants).

Results

The range in hypertension prevalence was from 27 to 55% for whites and 14 to 44% for blacks.

Conclusions

These data demonstrate that not only is there a wide variation in hypertension prevalence among both racial groups, the rates among blacks are not unusually high when viewed internationally. These data suggest that the impact of environmental factors among both populations may have been under-appreciated.