Race, ethnicity, and self-reported hypertension: analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey, 1997-2005.

OBJECTIVE

I estimated the association between race and self-reported hypertension among Hispanics and non-Hispanics and determined whether this association was stronger among non-Hispanics.

METHODS

With data from the 1997-2005 National Health Interview Survey, I used logistic regression to estimate the strength of the association between race/ethnicity and self-reported hypertension among US adults.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of self-reported hypertension was 24.5%, with lower prevalence among Hispanics (16.7%) than among non-Hispanics (25.2%; P < .01). Blacks, regardless of ethnicity, had the highest prevalence. Compared with non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks had 48% (odds ratio [OR] = 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.41, 1.55) greater odds of reporting hypertension; Hispanic Whites had 23% (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.76, 0.88) lower odds. There was no difference in the strength of the association between race and self-reported hypertension observed among non-Hispanics (OR for Blacks = 1.47) and among Hispanics (OR for Blacks = 1.20; for interaction, P = 0.43).

CONCLUSIONS

The previously reported hypertension advantage of Hispanics holds for Hispanic Whites only. As Hispanics continue their rapid growth in the United States, race may have important implications on their disease burden, because most US health disparities are driven by race and its socially patterned experiences.