Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, occurs at the highest rate among black Americans. Poorly-controlled blood pressure is one of the most important contributors to racial disparities in the mortality rate associated with cardiovascular disease. Poor control of hypertension, or high blood pressure, is more common among black Americans. Eliminating the racial disparity in blood pressure control among hypertensive adults would substantially reduce the number of heart disease- and stroke-related deaths among blacks, according to a study published in the most recent issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Doctors from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York analyzed national data on systolic blood pressure (the higher blood pressure number) and mortality from 1,545 black adults and 1,335 white adults aged 25 years and older who had a diagnosis of hypertension. They found that, the average systolic blood pressure among blacks with hypertension was approximately 7 mm Hg higher than the average systolic blood pressure among whites with hypertension. Using this information, the doctors modeled the changes in mortality that would result from a reduction of systolic blood pressure among blacks to that of whites. They calculated that this reduction would reduce the annual number of deaths among blacks from heart disease by 5,480 and from stroke by 2,190.

The exact causes of racial disparity in blood pressure control are not known, but potential explanations include differences in access to care, response to blood pressure medications, and hypertension severity. However, the authors of the study encourage primary care doctors to be particularly attentive to managing blood pressure in their black patients.