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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2007.123364v1 99/2/313    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Borrell, L. N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Borrell, L. N. Related Collections African Americans/Blacks Hispanics/Latinos Other Race/Ethnicity Surveys Cardiovascular Disease

Luisa N. Borrell, DDS, PhD

At the time of the study, Luisa N. Borrell was with the Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, and the Department of Health Sciences, Graduate Program in Public Health at Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Luisa N. Borrell, DDS, PhD, Department of Health Sciences, Lehman College/CUNY, 250 Bedford Park Blvd West, Gillet 336, Bronx, NY 10468 (e-mail: luisa.borrell{at}lehman.cuny.edu).

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.