Diabetes mellitus and hypertension in black and white populations.

The occurrence of hypertension in the presence of diabetes mellitus was evaluated in a study of black and white populations in separate hospitals for one fiscal year. Each population was sufficiently large to be significant (blacks, 6,491 and whites, 16,184). Hypertension and diabetes mellitus each occur about twice as frequently in blacks as in whites. The combination of the diseases is almost three times as common in the black as in the white population.