Sex, Race, Place of Residence Influence High Blood Pressure Incidence

-- December 6, 2010 -- High blood pressure may help to explain why deaths from heart disease and stroke vary according to geography, race and sex, researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. This is a sister publication of Circulation Magazine, which is also owned by the Association.

"Where you live, your race, and your gender strongly influence your risk of developing high blood pressure as you move from young adulthood into middle age — and hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke," said Deborah A. Levine, M.D., M.P.H., lead study author and assistant professor of internal medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

Between 1968 and 2006, deaths from heart disease and stroke fell an impressive 65 percent, but everyone didn't share equally in the positive trend, she said. Cardiovascular deaths are still higher in the southeastern United States, in blacks compared with whites, and in men compared with women.

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