Hypertension and ischaemic heart disease in Indian people living in South Africa and in India.

In a random house-to-house study of 1 000 Indians in Durban the prevalence of primary hypertension according to World Health Organization criteria was found to be 19% (females 22%, males 15%). This prevalence was higher than that in published data from India. Hypertension among Indians in South Africa was found to be closely associated with diabetes mellitus and obesity and to be more common in widows or separated people, in those from the lower socio-economic groups and in those with poor education. Hindu males were more commonly affected than Muslim males. Ischaemic heart disease was also found to be more common in Indians in South Africa than in those in India. Cardiovascular diseases are just as much an 'epidemic' among the Indians of South Africa as among the the Whites, and the 'epidemic' of ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive disease is of more serious proportions in Indians than in Whites. It appears that emigrant Indian populations have a higher incidence of vascular disease than Indians in India. This is because of the combination of hypertension and diabetes mellitus.