SUMMARY Blood pressure levels, anthropometric parameters, and dietary intakes were assessed in 1981 and 1983 in a population of black (n = 236) and white (n = 296) adolescent girls, aged 14 and 16 years in 1983. The 14-year-old black girls exhibited significantly higher mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures than whites in both years. Body weight and Quetelet index were more strongly associated with blood pressure than were height and triceps skinfold thickness. Correcting blood pressures for weight, Quetelet index, 2-year changes in height, and age at menarche decreased in each case (but did not negate) the observed race differences in blood pressure. Dietary calcium and potassium intakes were inversely related to blood pressure, and a race difference in the intake of these nutrients (whites > blacks) was observed. Covariate adjustment for calcium, but not for potassium, decreased the magnitude of race differences in blood pressure. Family type (single-parent vs nuclear) and place of residence (urban vs nonurban) appeared to be the most important confounding variables for race differences in blood pressure, since differences largely were eliminated by controlling for these factors. Conflicting reports in the literature regarding the age range during which race differences in blood pressure become apparent may be partially attributed to the complex interrelationships among these factors and the potential influence of other genetic-environmental interactions that may also play a role in blood pressure regulation. E LEVATED blood pressure is a risk factor for various chronic disease processes including atherosclerosis and thus constitutes a major public health problem in most industrialized countries.

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