The NHLBI workshop on Hypertension in Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islander Americans

In June 1994, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute held a workshop entitled "Epidemiology of Hypertension in Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islander Americans." The studies that served as the basis for the workshop along with a summary of two workshop panel discussions are being published as a supplement by Public Health Reports. In this article, the authors present graphs that compare results across these studies with data for non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The graphs indicate differences in mean blood pressure levels within and among these three population groups; such differences are also apparent in comparisons of these groups with the U.S. white and black populations. Although they appear modest, these differences are sufficient to result in increased mortality rates in populations with higher levels of hypertension. Environmental influences appear to underlie most of these differences. In all of these populations, blood pressure control rates are poor. Based on these studies, hypertension prevention and control programs should be undertaken. Special emphasis should be placed on the underserved minority populations that were the focus of the workshop.