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. 2017 Dec;35(12):2380-2387.
doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000001489.

Hypertension among US-born and foreign-born non-Hispanic Blacks: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2014 data

Alison G M Brown  1 , Robert F Houser, Josiemer Mattei, Dariush Mozaffarian, Alice H Lichtenstein, Sara C Folta
Affiliations

Hypertension among US-born and foreign-born non-Hispanic Blacks: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2014 data

Alison G M Brown et al. J Hypertens. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: Non-Hispanic Blacks in the United States have the highest reported prevalence of hypertension (44%) worldwide. However, this does not consider the heterogeneity of Blacks within the United States, particularly comparing US-born to long-standing or recent (foreign-born) immigrants. The objective of this study is to compare odds of hypertension between US-born and foreign-born Blacks in the United States.

Methods: We assessed the prevalence of hypertension among US-born (n = 4511) vs. foreign-born (n = 522) non-Hispanic Black adults aged 22-79 years, based on pooled nationally representative data (2003-2014); as well by length of US residency among immigrants. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to investigate the association between nativity and hypertension odds.

Results: Nearly half (42.8%) of US-born Blacks but only 27.4% of foreign-born Blacks had hypertension. After adjusting for major covariates, foreign-born Blacks were 39.0% less likely (odds ratio 0.61 95% confidence interval 0.49, 0.77) to have hypertension than their US-born counterparts. Among foreign-born Blacks, length of US residency was not significantly associated with odds of hypertension.

Conclusion: Foreign-born vs. US-born non-Hispanic Blacks have substantially lower prevalence of hypertension. Considering nativity among US Blacks in clinical research and public health efforts may improve accuracy of characterizing health disparities and facilitate development of targeted interventions to reduce hypertension in this diverse population.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interests: No known competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Risk of having hypertension for foreign-born, non-Hispanic Blacks compared to U.S.-born Blacks hypertension status, pooled NHANES 2003–2014 Model 1 adjusted for demographic factors of age and sex. Model 2 included the Model 1 variables as well as proxies for socio-economic status such as educational attainment, PIR, and health insurance status. Model 3 also included behavioral factors such as smoking status and physical activity. The final, full Model 4 also included the health risk variable, BMI All models are significant at the p<0.001 level
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Comment in

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