Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Jun 23:7:118.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-7-118.

Ethnic differences in the effect of environmental stressors on blood pressure and hypertension in the Netherlands

Charles Agyemang  1 , Carolien van Hooijdonk, Wanda Wendel-Vos, Joanne K Ujcic-Voortman, Ellen Lindeman, Karien Stronks, Mariel Droomers
Affiliations

Ethnic differences in the effect of environmental stressors on blood pressure and hypertension in the Netherlands

Charles Agyemang et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Evidence strongly suggests that the neighbourhood in which people live influences their health. Despite this, investigations of ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk factors have focused mainly on individual-level characteristics. The main purpose of this study was to investigate associations between neighbourhood-level environmental stressors (crime, housing density, nuisance from alcohol and drug misuse, quality of green space and social participation), and blood pressure (BP) and hypertension among different ethnic groups.

Methods: Individual data from the Amsterdam Health Survey 2004 were linked to data on neighbourhood stressors creating a multilevel design for data analysis. The study sample consisted of 517 Dutch, 404 Turkish and 365 Moroccans living in 15 neighbourhoods in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Results: Amongst Moroccans, high density housing and nuisance from drug misuse were associated with a higher systolic BP, while high quality of green space and social participation were associated with a lower systolic BP. High level of nuisance from drug misuse was associated with a higher diastolic BP. High quality of green space was associated with lower odds of hypertension. Amongst Turkish, high level of crime and nuisance from motor traffic were associated with a higher diastolic BP. Similar associations were observed among the Dutch group but none of the differences were statistically significant.

Conclusion: The study findings show that neighbourhood-level stressors are associated with BP in ethnic minority groups but were less evident in the Dutch group. These findings might imply that the higher BP levels found in some ethnic minority groups might be partly due to their greater susceptibility to the adverse neighbourhood environment in which many ethnic minority people live. Primary prevention measures targeting these neighbourhood stressors may have an impact in reducing high BP related morbidity and mortality among ethnic minority groups.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kearney PM, Whelton M, Reynolds K, Muntner P, Whelton PK, He J. Global burden of hypertension: analysis of worldwide data. Lancet. 2005;365:217–223. - PubMed
    1. Lewington S, Clarke R, Qizilbash NF, Peto R, Collins R. Age-specific relevance of usual blood pressure to vascular mortality: a meta-analysis of individual data for one million adults in 61 prospective studies. Lancet. 2002;360:1903–1913. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11911-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Mortality by cause for eight regions of the world: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 1997;349:1269–76. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(96)07493-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Agyemang C, Bhopal R. Is the blood pressure of people from African origin adults in the UK higher or lower than that in European origin white people? A review of cross-sectional data. J Hum Hypertens. 2003;17:523–34. doi: 10.1038/sj.jhh.1001586. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Agyemang C, Bhopal RS. Is the blood pressure of South Asian adults in the UK higher or lower than that in European white adults? A review of cross-sectional data. J Hum Hypertens. 2002;16:739–51. doi: 10.1038/sj.jhh.1001488. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms