Hispanics' hypertension better controlled with equal acce...( With equal access to medical care an...),Health

With equal access to medical care and medication, Hispanic men and women have as good or greater chance as non-Hispanics of controlling their high blood pressure, researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Poor blood pressure control in Hispanics is not due to biological factors associated with race or ethnicity, said Karen L. Margolis, M.D., M.P.H., senior clinical investigator at the HealthPartners Research Foundation in Minneapolis, Minn. If treated aggressively with a good medication regimen, Hispanics have an equal chance of controlling blood pressure.

Population-based research has shown that hypertension awareness, treatment and control is lower among Hispanics compared to non-Hispanic whites and blacks.

When researchers studied blood pressure control in Hispanics as part of the ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial), they found that Hispanics responded as well or better than non-Hispanics.

Hispanics were less likely to have their blood pressure controlled when entering the study despite a similar proportion being on blood pressure medication. But at the four-year follow-up, blood pressure was controlled in 72 percent of Hispanic whites and 69 percent of Hispanic blacks compared to 67 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 59 percent of non-Hispanic blacks.

At two years, Hispanic whites had 20 percent greater odds of achieving blood pressure control compared to non-Hispanic whites, after researchers adjusted for demographic differences and co-morbidities such as diabetes, smoking and existing cardiovascular disease. Hispanic blacks had similar odds of achieving blood pressure control; however, non

Hispanic blacks had 27 percent lower odds of achieving blood pressure control at two years. When participants from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were excluded in a separate analysis at two years, blood pressure control was equivalent in Hispanics and n
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