Blood pressure in black, white and Asian factory workers in Birmingham

Abstract

SummaryA screening survey was conducted among factory workers, aged 15-64 years, in Birmingham, England to investigate ethnic differences in blood pressure. One-thousand and forty-nine subjects (784 men, 265 women) were screened, representing 79%Xv of the eligible population.Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures generally did not differ between men of black West Indian (n= 173), local white (n= 439) or Asian (n= 172) origin, when matched by 10-year age groups. Analysis of covariance using age as the covariate revealed that, overall, Asian men had significantly lower systolic but higher diastolic pressures than the other ethnic groups. The proportion of men arbitrarily defined as hypertensive (3 160 mmHg systolic or 395 diastolic or blood pressures below this figure whilst receiving antihypertensive therapy) was 26% of West Indians, 22% of whites and 17% of Asians, but these were not significantly different when age was accounted for.Black West Indian women (n= 101) did have higher diastolic pressure than white women (n= 164), but this difference was dependent on body mass index. Overall, systolic pressures in women were not significantly different.These findings differ from those consistently reported from the United States.

Is the blood pressure of South Asian adults in the UK higher or lower than that in European white adults? A review of cross-sectional data

“…[4][5][6][7]10,12 Four study [4][5][6]10 samples were based on general practices lists. Two studies 3,8 were factory based, two were from the health surveys for England, 13,14 one was based on postcode sectors, 9 one was based on office staff, 12 one was based on a health authority register used for a health and lifestyle survey, 11 and one was general practice and factory based. 7 Most studies had broad aims relating to a range of cardiovascular risk factors.…”

“…7 Most studies had broad aims relating to a range of cardiovascular risk factors. Name analysis, [7][8][9][10][11] selfreported origin, 3,6,8,11,13,14 country of birth, [5][6][7] and parental origin 6,11 were the usual indicators of ethnicity. The age range varied widely.…”

“…Totally, 12 studies were examined. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] One author 10 supplied unpublished data.…”

“…Whitty et al 12 reported cross-sectional data from a cohort design. One study was designed specifically to focus on blood pressure levels and prevalence of hypertension, 3 the rest had broad aims. As given in the paper, 95% confidence intervals and P-values are reported.…”

“…Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the total study sample in one study were calculated as the results were based on age-specific groups. 3 …”