The slavery hypertension hypothesis: dissemination and appeal of a modern race theory

Towards the multileveled and processual conceptualisation of racialised individuals in biomedical research

In this paper, we discuss the processes of racialisation on the example of biomedical research. We argue that applying the concept of racialisation in biomedical research can be much more precise, informative and suitable than currently used categories, such as race and ethnicity. For this purpose, we construct a model of the different processes affecting and co-shaping the racialisation of an individual, and consider these in relation to biomedical research, particularly to studies on hypertension. We finish with a discussion on the potential application of our proposition to institutional guidelines on the use of racial categories in biomedical research.

Use of Racial and Ethnic Categories in Medical Testing and Diagnosis: Primum Non Nocere

BACKGROUND

Use of race and ethnicity is common in medical tests and procedures, even though these categories are defined by sociological, historical, and political processes, and vary considerably in their definitions over time and place. Because all societies organize themselves around these constructs in some way, they are undeniable facets of the human experience, with myriad health consequences. In the biomedical literature, they are also commonly interpreted as representing biological heterogeneity that is relevant for health and disease.

CONTENT

We review the use of race and ethnicity in medical practice, especially in the USA, and provide 2 specific examples to represent a large number of similar instances. We then critique these uses along a number of different dimensions, including limitations in measurement, within- versus between-group variance, and implications for informativeness of risk markers for individuals, generalization from arbitrary or nonrepresentative samples, perpetuation of myths and stereotypes, instability in time and place, crowding out of more relevant risk markers, stigmatization, and the tainting of medicine with the history of oppression. We conclude with recommendations to improve practice that are technical, ethical, and pragmatic.

SUMMARY

Medicine has evolved from a mystical healing art to a mature science of human health through a rigorous process of quantification, experimentation, and evaluation. Folkloric traditions, such as race- and ethnic-specific medicine will fade from use as we become increasingly critical of outdated and irrational clinical practices and replace these with personalized, evidenced-based tests, algorithms, and procedures that privilege patients' individual humanity over obsolete and misleading labels.

Taking an antiracist posture in scientific publications in human genetics and genomics

From its earliest days, the field of human genetics has had a complex, and at times troubling, connection with racist ideologies. Although the modern field of human genetics and genomics has come a long way from those earlier errors, systemic racism remains ingrained in its institutions and practices. Although a variety of efforts are needed to excise systemic racism, we focus in this commentary on the work that must be done in scientific publishing in genetics and genomics. We propose eight principles that are both scientifically grounded and antiracist that we hope will serve as a foundation for the development of policies by publishers and editorial boards that address the unique needs of the field of genetics and genomics. Publishers and journals must go beyond mere policies, however. Editors and reviewers will need training on these policies and principles, and will benefit from resources like rubrics that can be used for evaluating the adherence of submissions to these guidelines.

[Factors associated with arterial hypertension: a systematic review]

A systematic review of demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral and anthropometric factors associated with hypertension. We included observational studies, of populations aged 18 or older, from the past ten years, published in English, Portuguese or Spanish from Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and Lilacs bases. The most found factors related to the greater chance of having hypertension were age and the Body Mass Index (BMI). Other factors associated with the disease were: gender (male), education (lower education), income (lower income) and waist circumference (high). Never having smoked, never having consumed alcohol and white skin color were characteristics related to a lower chance of having hypertension. As demonstrated, demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral and anthropometric characteristics are important factors associated with a greater chance of having hypertension in the adult population. However, while most of the factors associated with it are amenable to intervention, broader health promotion policies will be needed to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of the disease.

Cardiovascular Disease and hospital admissions in African immigrants and former Soviet Union immigrants: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Previous studies reported low prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) despite an increasing prevalence of metabolic abnormalities in immigrants who moved from low CVD-risk regions to Western countries. Nevertheless, little is known about hospital admissions due to CVD in immigrants.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study of East Africa immigrants (EAI), Former Soviet Union immigrants (FSUI) and native-born Israelis (NBI) over 11-year period. Associations between ethnicity, age, sex, CVD, and hospital admission were assessed using logistic and Poisson regression models. Incidence density rates per person-years were calculated.

RESULTS

The age-adjusted prevalence rates of ischemic heart disease in EAI, FSUI and NBI, respectively, were 1.8%, 8.2%, and 5.8%, respectively (p < 0.001). The corresponding rates for stroke were 2.6%, 3.5%, and 2.5%, respectively. Multivariate odds ratios for all CVD were found to be significantly lower in EAI for both sexes. Hospitalizations rate due to CVD were 9, 17, and 6 per 1000 person-years in EAI, FSUI and NBI, respectively (p < 0.001). EAI were more likely to be hospitalized due to hypertensive disease, cerebral vascular diseases and heart disease, in comparison to NBI and FSUI. However, when controlling for CVD risk factors profile, EAI had similar admission rates to NBI. EAI were more likely to be hospitalized in internal medicine, geriatrics, and neurology departments, and less likely to be admitted to intensive care units or surgical department.

CONCLUSIONS

EAI had low rates of all types of CVD, and low risk of hospitalization after controlling for CVD risk factors profile.

Interpreting polygenic scores, polygenic adaptation, and human phenotypic differences

Recent analyses of polygenic scores have opened new discussions concerning the genetic basis and evolutionary significance of differences among populations in distributions of phenotypes. Here, we highlight limitations in research on polygenic scores, polygenic adaptation and population differences. We show how genetic contributions to traits, as estimated by polygenic scores, combine with environmental contributions so that differences among populations in trait distributions need not reflect corresponding differences in genetic propensity. Under a null model in which phenotypes are selectively neutral, genetic propensity differences contributing to phenotypic differences among populations are predicted to be small. We illustrate this null hypothesis in relation to health disparities between African Americans and European Americans, discussing alternative hypotheses with selective and environmental effects. Close attention to the limitations of research on polygenic phenomena is important for the interpretation of their relationship to human population differences.

Hypertension among US-born and foreign-born non-Hispanic Blacks: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2014 data

OBJECTIVES

Non-Hispanic Blacks in the United States have the highest reported prevalence of hypertension (44%) worldwide. However, this does not consider the heterogeneity of Blacks within the United States, particularly comparing US-born to long-standing or recent (foreign-born) immigrants. The objective of this study is to compare odds of hypertension between US-born and foreign-born Blacks in the United States.

METHODS

We assessed the prevalence of hypertension among US-born (n = 4511) vs. foreign-born (n = 522) non-Hispanic Black adults aged 22-79 years, based on pooled nationally representative data (2003-2014); as well by length of US residency among immigrants. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to investigate the association between nativity and hypertension odds.

RESULTS

Nearly half (42.8%) of US-born Blacks but only 27.4% of foreign-born Blacks had hypertension. After adjusting for major covariates, foreign-born Blacks were 39.0% less likely (odds ratio 0.61 95% confidence interval 0.49, 0.77) to have hypertension than their US-born counterparts. Among foreign-born Blacks, length of US residency was not significantly associated with odds of hypertension.

CONCLUSION

Foreign-born vs. US-born non-Hispanic Blacks have substantially lower prevalence of hypertension. Considering nativity among US Blacks in clinical research and public health efforts may improve accuracy of characterizing health disparities and facilitate development of targeted interventions to reduce hypertension in this diverse population.

Race in an epigenetic time: thinking biology in the plural

The notion that biological memories of environmental experiences can be embedded in the human genome and even transmitted transgenerationally is increasingly relevant in the postgenomic world, particularly in molecular epigenetics, where the genome is conceptualized as porous to environmental signals. In this article I discuss the current rethinking of race in epigenetic rather than genetic terms, emphasizing some of its paradoxical implications, especially for public policy. I claim in particular that: (i) if sociologists want to investigate race in a postgenomic world they should pay more attention to this novel plastic and biosocial view of race; and (ii) there are no reasons to believe that an epigenetic view will extinguish race, or that soft-inheritance claims will produce a less exclusionary discourse than genetics (hard heredity). Quite the opposite, the ground for a re-racialization of social debates and the reinforcement of biological boundaries between groups are highlighted in the article.

Illness Narratives of African Americans Living With Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Interactionist Analysis

How African American men and women respond to and manage living with coronary heart disease (CHD) is not well understood despite the well-documented disproportionate burden of CHD and its complications among African Americans in the United States. Through a critical interactionist perspective, we explore illness experiences of African Americans living with CHD and describe a broad range of micro-, meso-, and macro-contextual factors that influence their illness experiences. For participants in this study, CHD has become a "Black disease" wherein certain bodies have become historically and racially marked; a conceptualization maintained and passed on by African Americans themselves. Such findings highlight that CHD is more than a "lifestyle disease" where high-risk behaviors and lack of healthy choices are ultimate culprits. Rather, CHD is perceived by African Americans who have it as yet another product of ongoing racial and socio-structural dynamics through which their health burdens are created, sustained, and reproduced.

Racial discrimination associated with higher diastolic blood pressure in a sample of American Indian adults

OBJECTIVES

Hypertension prevalence is high among American Indians (AIs). AIs experience a substantial burden of interpersonal racial discrimination, which in other populations has been associated with higher blood pressure. The purpose of this study is to understand whether racial discrimination experiences are associated with higher blood pressure in AIs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used the Everyday Discrimination Scale to evaluate the relationship between discrimination and measured blood pressure among 77 AIs from two reservation communities in the Northern Plains. We used multivariate linear regression to evaluate the association of racial discrimination with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Racial discrimination, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were analyzed as continuous variables. All analyses adjusted for sex, waist circumference, age, posttraumatic stress disorder status, and education.

RESULTS

We found that 61% of participants experienced discrimination that they attributed to their race or ancestry. Racial discrimination was associated with significantly higher diastolic blood pressure (β = 0.22, SE = 0.09, p = .02), and with a similar non-significant trend toward higher systolic blood pressure (β = 0.25, SE = 0.15, p = .09).

CONCLUSION

The results of this analysis suggest that racial discrimination may contribute to higher diastolic blood pressure within Native communities. These findings highlight one pathway through which the social environment can shape patterns of biology and health in AI and other socially and politically marginalized groups.

End of Life in a Haitian American, Faith-Based Community: Caring for Family and Communal Unity

This article presents two models resulting from a grounded theory study of the end-of-life decision-making process for Haitian Americans. Successful access to this vulnerable population was achieved through the faith-based community. The first model describes this faith-based community of Haitian Americans. The second model describes the process used by families in this community who must make end-of-life healthcare decisions. Implications for nursing practice and caring science include a need to improve the congruence between the nursing care provided at this vulnerable time and the cultural values of a population.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Preventable Hospitalizations for Chronic Disease: Prevalence and Risk Factors

BACKGROUND

Hospitalizations due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) result in high morbidity and economic burden on the American healthcare system. Admissions due to chronic ACSCs, in particular, cost the American healthcare system over 30 billion dollars annually.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS

This paper presents the current research on racial and ethnic disparities in the burden of hospitalizations due to chronic ACSCs. For this narrative review, we evaluated over 800 abstracts from MEDLINE and Google Scholar and cited 62 articles.

RESULTS

Since 1998, racial and ethnic disparities in hospitalizations from chronic ACSCs have increased resulting in over 430,000 excess hospitalizations among non-Hispanic Blacks compared to non-Hispanic Whites.

CONCLUSIONS

Racial disparities in chronic ACSCs hospitalizations are pervasive in the USA. There is need for more research on the pathways through which an individual's race modifies the risk for hospitalizations due to chronic ACSCs.

African Ancestry, Social Factors, and Hypertension Among Non-Hispanic Blacks in the Health and Retirement Study

The biomedical literature contains much speculation about possible genetic explanations for the large and persistent black-white disparities in hypertension, but profound social inequalities are also hypothesized to contribute to this outcome. Our goal is to evaluate whether socioeconomic status (SES) differences provide a plausible mechanism for associations between African ancestry and hypertension in a U.S. cohort of older non-Hispanic blacks. We included only non-Hispanic black participants (N = 998) from the Health and Retirement Study who provided genetic data. We estimated percent African ancestry based on 84,075 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms using ADMIXTURE V1.23, imposing K = 4 ancestral populations, and categorized into quartiles. Hypertension status was self-reported in the year 2000. We used linear probability models (adjusted for age, sex, and southern birth) to predict prevalent hypertension with African ancestry quartile, before and after accounting for a small set of SES measures. Respondents with the highest quartile of African ancestry had 8 percentage points' (RD = 0.081; 95% CI: -0.001, 0.164) higher prevalence of hypertension compared to the lowest quartile. Adjustment for childhood disadvantage, education, income, and wealth explained over one-third (RD = 0.050; 95% CI: -0.034, 0.135) of the disparity. Explanations for the residual disparity remain unspecified and may include other indicators of SES or diet, lifestyle, and psychosocial mechanisms.

Community as a source of health in three racial/ethnic communities in Oregon: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

A 2011 report by the Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Human Services documented disparities in its Latino and American Indian populations on multiple individual-level health indicators. However, research is lacking on the social contexts in which Latinos and American Indians in Oregon live and how these environments influence the health of communities as a whole. To help fill this gap, this study sought to contextualize the social environments that influence the health of Latinos and American Indian residents in three Oregon communities.

METHODS

Guided by an ecological framework, we conducted one-time semi-structured qualitative interviews with 26 study participants to identify the prominent health-related issues in the communities and to examine the factors that study participants perceived as enabling or inhibiting healthy lifestyles of community residents. We used a grounded theory approach to perform content and thematic analyses of the data.

RESULTS

Study participants identified preventable chronic conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, as the most pressing health concerns in their communities. Results showed that traditional and cultural activities and strong family and community cohesion were viewed as facilitators of good community health. Poverty, safety concerns, insufficient community resources, and discrimination were perceived as barriers to community health. Three themes emerged from the thematic analyses: social connectedness is integral to health; trauma has an ongoing negative impact on health; and invisibility of residents in the community underlies poor health.

CONCLUSIONS

This study's findings provide insight to the social contexts which operate in the lives of some Latinos and American Indians in Oregon. While participants identified community-level factors as important to health, they focused more on the social connections of individuals to each other and the relationships that residents have with their communities at-large. Our findings may also help to explain how the intra- and inter-personal levels, the community/institutional level, and the macro level/public policy contexts can serve to influence health in these communities. For example, trauma and invisibility are not routinely examined in community health assessment and improvement planning activities; nonetheless, these factors appear to be at play affecting the health of residents.

Extensive copy number variations in admixed Indian population of African ancestry: potential involvement in adaptation

Admixture mapping has been enormously resourceful in identifying genetic variations linked to phenotypes, adaptation, and diseases. In this study through analysis of copy number variable regions (CNVRs), we report extensive restructuring in the genomes of the recently admixed African-Indian population (OG-W-IP) that inhabits a highly saline environment in Western India. The study included subjects from OG-W-IP (OG), five different Indian and three HapMap populations that were genotyped using Affymetrix version 6.0 arrays. Copy number variations (CNVs) detected using Birdsuite were used to define CNVRs. Population structure with respect to CNVRs was delineated using random forest approach. OG genomes have a surprising excess of CNVs in comparison to other studied populations. Individual ancestry proportions computed using STRUCTURE also reveals a unique genetic component in OGs. Population structure analysis with CNV genotypes indicates OG to be distant from both the African and Indian ancestral populations. Interestingly, it shows genetic proximity with respect to CNVs to only one Indian population IE-W-LP4, which also happens to reside in the same geographical region. We also observe a significant enrichment of molecular processes related to ion binding and receptor activity in genes encompassing OG-specific CNVRs. Our results suggest that retention of CNVRs from ancestral natives and de novo acquisition of CNVRs could accelerate the process of adaptation especially in an extreme environment. Additionally, this population would be enormously useful for dissecting genes and delineating the involvement of CNVs in salt adaptation.

Contextualizing racial disparities in preterm delivery: a rhetorical analysis of U.S. epidemiological research at the turn of the 21st century

Preterm delivery (PTD), defined as delivery prior to 37 weeks gestation, is a key contributor to persistent racial disparities in infant mortality in the United States. Five major funding initiatives were devoted to advancing PTD epidemiology during the 1990s and 2000s. By examining content and rhetorical features of 94 studies conducted under these initiatives, and published between 1993 and 2011, this paper considers how calls for more "contextual" approaches (focusing on social and environmental contexts) interacted with more "conventional" approaches (focusing on individual-level risk factors) to PTD epidemiology during this period. Contextual advocates initially emphasized complex biosocial reasoning to better connect social adversity with embodied outcomes. Yet responses by researchers invested in conventional approaches, as well as in studies published under new initiatives that explicitly claimed to incorporate contextual insights, often reframed this complex reasoning in biologically reductionist terms. Subsequent contextual advocates then focused on developing statistical methods to support research about social and environmental causes of PTD, and this strategy appears to have gained some traction with conventional researchers. These findings call for closer attention to language and power in both social scientific studies of epidemiological knowledge production, as well as among epidemiologists themselves.

Hypertension in Haiti: the challenge of best possible practice

On the fourth anniversary, it is impossible to discuss hypertension in Haiti without acknowledging the almost incalculable negative impact of the January 12, 2010 earthquake. It was catastrophic not only in terms of death and physical injury, but also the widespread destruction of a tenuous infrastructure and public health system. Yet, paradoxically, this virtual blank slate could be an opportunity to develop an innovative pragmatic approach to the equally devastating problem of hypertension as the most common contributing cause of death in Haiti. Rising Phoenix-like literally from the ashes and rubble, there are lessons to be learned from the Haiti experience, as a potential model for the management of hypertension in the community in low resource venues in the Caribbean and beyond. Haiti has very poor comparative outcomes, and specific challenges related to high prevalence stroke, renal failure, and heart failure as negative prognostic consequences of undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension. There are severe public health challenges related to salt education, as well as societal challenges related to negative social determinants of health and disease, and the structural violence of overwhelming poverty. Pragmatism is necessary as we attempt to combine the tenets of evidence based medicine with reality based medicine restrictions imposed by low resource. It is through the generation of Best Possible Practice (BPP) models of care that colleagues can develop systems of mutual knowledge sharing, service, and support. This approach extends to screening and diagnosis, where there is no electricity for semi- or automatic manometric devices and requisite need to train in manual/ auscultatory technique, to education and curricula built specifically around a flexible hypertension community management guideline as the accepted standard to aspire to. A successful approach requires solid guiding principles, including a commitment to best attainable quality and value(s). It also requires standing together as a community of dedicated medical professionals.

The Nature/Culture of Genetic Facts

This review aims to explore the relationship between anthropology and genetics, an intellectual zone that has been occupied in different ways over the past century. One way to think about it is to contrast a classical “anthropological genetics” ( Roberts 1965 ), that is to say, a genetics that presumably informs anthropological issues or questions, with a “genomic anthropology” ( Pálsson 2008 ), that is to say, an anthropology that complements and relativizes modern genomics (on the model of, say, medical anthropology and legal anthropology). 1 This review argues that a principal contribution of anthropology to the study of human heredity lies in the ontology of genetic facts. For anthropology, genetic facts are not natural, with meanings inscribed on them, but are instead natural/cultural: The natural facts have cultural information (values, ideologies, meanings) integrated into them, not layered on them. To understand genetic facts involves confronting their production, which has classically been restricted to questions of methodology but which may be conceptualized more broadly. This review is not intended as a critique of the field of anthropological genetics, but as a reformulation of its central objects of study. I argue for reconceptualizing the ontology of scientific facts in anthropological genetics, not as (value-neutral) biological facts situated in a cultural context, but instead as inherently biocultural facts.

Assessment of population exposure to PM10 for respiratory disease in Lanzhou (China) and its health-related economic costs based on GIS

BACKGROUND

Evaluation of the adverse health effects of PM10 pollution (particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter) is very important for protecting human health and establishing pollution control policy. Population exposure estimation is the first step in formulating exposure data for quantitative assessment of harmful PM10 pollution.

METHODS

In this paper, we estimate PM10 concentration using a spatial interpolation method on a grid with a spatial resolution 0.01° × 0.01°. PM10 concentration data from monitoring stations are spatially interpolated, based on accurate population data in 2000 using a geographic information system. Then, an interpolated population layer is overlaid with an interpolated PM10 concentration layer, and population exposure levels are calculated. Combined with the exposure-response function between PM10 and health endpoints, economic costs of the adverse health effects of PM10 pollution are analyzed.

RESULTS

The results indicate that the population in Lanzhou urban areas is distributed in a narrow and long belt, and there are relatively large population spatial gradients in the XiGu, ChengGuan and QiLiHe districts. We select threshold concentration C0 at: 0 μg m(-3) (no harmful health effects), 20 μg m(-3) (recommended by the World Health Organization), and 50 μg m(-3) (national first class standard in China) to calculate excess morbidity cases. For these three scenarios, proportions of the economic cost of PM10 pollution-related adverse health effects relative to GDP are 0.206%, 0.194% and 0.175%, respectively. The impact of meteorological factors on PM10 concentrations in 2000 is also analyzed. Sandstorm weather in spring, inversion layers in winter, and precipitation in summer are important factors associated with change in PM10 concentration.

CONCLUSIONS

The population distribution by exposure level shows that the majority of people live in polluted areas. With the improvement of evaluation criteria, economic damage of respiratory disease caused by PM10 is much bigger. The health effects of Lanzhou urban residents should not be ignored. The government needs to find a better way to balance the health of residents and economy development. And balance the pros and cons before making a final policy.

Blacks and Whites in the Cuba have equal prevalence of hypertension: confirmation from a new population survey

Background

The excess burden of hypertension among blacks has been a prominent feature of the heath disparities literature, and many scientists presume it to be a stable and inevitable phenomenon. The underlying causes of this disparity can only be disentangled in a setting in which the population does not experience racial stratification of socioeconomic opportunities. While such conditions of racial equality remain uncommon, they may be approximated in Cuba, a country with a persistent policy of social inclusion over the last 5 decades.

Methods

We report on a 2010–2011 stratified probability sample of those aged 15–74 years from the urban population of Cienfuegos in central Cuba. A total of 1496 adults (880 women and 616 men) were recruited and assessed for blood pressure and anthropometrics according to standardized protocols, as well as medication use, educational attainment and observed skin tone (dichotomized into “black” and “white”). Weighted tabular and regression analyses were conducted to estimate adjusted prevalences of hypertension (> 140/90 mmHg) and adjusted prevalence odds ratios for contrasts between the two skin color groups.

Results

Mean pressures were higher for men than for women, but overall did not differ importantly between racial groups. About half of all diagnosed hypertensive men were on medication, a proportion that did not vary by racial group. For women, however, adjusted prevalence was somewhat higher among blacks, and treatment and control rates were also somewhat advantaged for white women.

Conclusions

Overall, skin color was unrelated to mean blood pressure or hypertensive status in this population, although among women specifically some racial advantage appears evident in adjusted prevalence and control, and should be investigated further. The overall null result suggests that Cuba may exemplify the social conditions in which racial excess in hypertension, characteristic of much of the western world, is not a necessary reality.

Heterogeneity of risk within racial groups, a challenge for public health programs

Targeting high-risk populations for public health interventions is a classic tool of public health promotion programs. This practice becomes thornier when racial groups are identified as the at-risk populations. I present the particular ethical and epistemic challenges that arise when there are low-risk subpopulations within racial groups that have been identified as high-risk for a particular health concern. I focus on two examples. The black immigrant population does not have the same hypertension risk as US-born African Americans. Similarly, Finnish descendants have a far lower rate of cystic fibrosis than other Caucasians. In both cases the exceptional nature of these subpopulations has been largely ignored by the designers of important public health efforts, including the recent US government dietary recommendations. I argue that amending the publicly-disseminated risk information to acknowledge these exceptions would be desirable for several reasons. First, recognizing low-risk subpopulations would allow more efficient use of limited resources. Communicating this valuable information to the subpopulations would also promote truth-telling. Finally, presenting a more nuanced empirically-supported representation of which groups are at known risk of diseases (not focusing on mere racial categories) would combat harmful biological race essentialist views held by the public.

Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among Ghanaian population in Amsterdam, The Netherlands: the GHAIA study

BACKGROUND

Migration from sub-Saharan Africa to industrialized countries has increased tremendously over the last few decades, yet very little is known about the health status of sub-Saharan African populations living in industrialized communities. The aim of this study was to assess prevalence, levels of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among the largest sub-Saharan African group (Ghanaians) living in the Netherlands.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study of Ghanaian adults aged 18-60 years in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of hypertension was 55%. Of these, about half were aware of their condition, 45% were receiving antihypertensive medication, and 15% were controlled (blood pressure <140/90 mmHg). The prevalence rates of hypertension, awareness, and treatment were similar among males and females. However, males had a lower blood pressure control rate than females. Among all hypertensives, 22% of females had their blood pressure controlled compared with 5.8% in males: adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) 3.94 (95% CI 1.05-14.79). Among those receiving treatment for their hypertension, 48% of females were controlled compared with only 13% of males: APR 4.08 (95% CI 1.20-13.87).

CONCLUSION

Hypertension is a major problem among this recently migrated sub-Saharan African population. Furthermore, hypertension control rate is very low particularly in males. Urgent measures are needed to halt the increasing prevalence of hypertension and to improve hypertension control among these populations.

Divergence with age in blood pressure in African-Caribbean and white populations in England: implications for screening for hypertension

BACKGROUND

We assessed when blood pressure (BP) and hypertension begin to rise in African-Caribbeans compared to the white population; and whether the change relates to body mass index (BMI).

METHODS

Secondary analysis of the cross-sectional Health Surveys for England among 22,723 participants (21,344 whites and 1,379 African-Caribbeans) adults aged ≥18 years.

RESULTS

The cubic spline graphs showed a crossover (African-Caribbean greater than whites) at 30-40 years in BP. Age-specific mean BP and hypertension prevalence data showed at 20-29 years African-Caribbean men were advantaged but not thereafter. There was little difference in BMI in men. African-Caribbean women had lower systolic BP (but higher prevalence of hypertension) at 20-29 years but higher BP and prevalence of hypertension thereafter. African-Caribbean women had higher BMI than white women. Regression showed an age and ethnicity interaction for systolic (0.076 mm Hg greater increase per year, P = 0.054) and diastolic BP (0.068 mm Hg greater increase per year (P = 0.009) and hypertension (OR equals 1.02, P = 0.004) in African-Caribbean men, and diastolic BP in African-Caribbean women (0.057 mm Hg greater increase per year, P = 0.017). Crossover was 28, 44, and 28 years for systolic BP, diastolic BP and hypertension in men, respectively; and 40 years for diastolic BP in women.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinicians should be extra vigilant about screening African-Caribbean patients from the age of 30 years. Detailed study is needed to understand the still mysterious mechanisms for this crossover.

Neighborhood stressors and race/ethnic differences in hypertension prevalence (the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis)

BACKGROUND

The reasons for racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension (HTN) prevalence in the United States are poorly understood.

METHODS

Using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), we investigated whether individual- and neighborhood-level chronic stressors contribute to these disparities in cross-sectional analyses. The sample consisted of 2,679 MESA participants (45-84 years) residing in Baltimore, New York, and North Carolina. HTN was defined as systolic or diastolic blood pressure ≥140 or 90 mm Hg, or taking antihypertensive medications. Individual-level chronic stress was measured by self-reported chronic burden and perceived major and everyday discrimination. A measure of neighborhood (census tract) chronic stressors (i.e., physical disorder, violence) was developed using data from a telephone survey conducted with other residents of MESA neighborhoods. Binomial regression was used to estimate associations between HTN and race/ethnicity before and after adjustment for individual and neighborhood stressors.

RESULTS

The prevalence of HTN was 59.5% in African Americans (AAs), 43.9% in Hispanics, and 42.0% in whites. Age- and sex-adjusted relative prevalences of HTN (compared to whites) were 1.30 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22-1.38) for AA and 1.16 (95% CI: 1.04-1.31) for Hispanics. Adjustment for neighborhood stressors reduced these to 1.17 (95% CI: 1.11-1.22) and 1.09 (95% CI: 1.00-1.18), respectively. Additional adjustment for individual-level stressors, acculturation, income, education, and other neighborhood features only slightly reduced these associations.

CONCLUSION

Neighborhood chronic stressors may contribute to race/ethnic differences in HTN prevalence in the United States.

Hyperdiagnostics: postcolonial utopics of race-based biomedicine

The expansion of biomedical research into countries outside the United States and Western Europe is positing new biological links between populations based on race. This expansion includes six international projects occurring in Barbados, premised on the idea that the population is genetically representative of other black people. Based on ethnographic research tracking one such study, a genetics of asthma project, this article explores the ways Caribbean meanings of ethnicity and illness are reworked as Barbadian state medical practitioners become involved in facilitating the international genetics research on race and disease. As the state attempts to participate in an imagined future of genetic medicine, the hyperspecificity of genetic technologies create new medical meanings of race and disease. These changes rely on a paradoxical response by medical practitioners toward the high technology American genetic research as both authoritative and inapplicable, creating unexpected etiologies of illness and ethnicity.

A cross-national comparative study of blood pressure and hypertension between English and Dutch South-Asian- and African-origin populations: the role of national context

BACKGROUND

We compare patterns of blood pressure (BP) and prevalence of hypertension between white-Dutch and their South-Asian and African minority groups with their corresponding white-English and their South-Asian and African ethnic minority groups; and the contribution of physical activity, body sizes, and socioeconomic position (SEP); and the quality of BP treatment that may underlie differences in mean BP.

METHODS

Secondary analyses of population-based studies of 13,999 participants from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

RESULTS

Compared with Dutch South-Asians, all English South-Asian men and women had lower BP and prevalence of hypertension except for systolic BP in English-Indian men. Among Africans, the systolic BP did not differ, but the diastolic BP levels were lower in English-Caribbean and English- (sub-Sahara) African men and women than in their Dutch-African counterparts. English-Caribbeans had a lower prevalence of hypertension than Dutch-Africans. Compared with white-Dutch, white-English men and women had higher systolic BP levels, but lower diastolic BP levels. There were no differences in the prevalence of hypertension between the white groups. Most differences remained unchanged after adjustment for SEP, lifestyle, and body sizes in all ethnic groups. BP control rates were substantially lower among Dutch-African and Dutch South-Asian hypertensives than among their English counterparts (except Indians).

CONCLUSIONS

We found marked variations in BP and hypertension prevalence between comparable ethnic groups in England and the Netherlands. Poor BP control among Dutch South-Asians and Africans contributed to their disadvantage of the relatively high BP levels.

Human difference in the genomic era: Facilitating a socially responsible dialogue

Background

The study of human genetic variation has been advanced by research such as genome-wide association studies, which aim to identify variants associated with common, complex diseases and traits. Significant strides have already been made in gleaning information on susceptibility, treatment, and prevention of a number of disorders. However, as genetic researchers continue to uncover underlying differences between individuals, there is growing concern that observed population-level differences will be inappropriately generalized as inherent to particular racial or ethnic groups and potentially perpetuate negative stereotypes.

Discussion

We caution that imprecision of language when conveying research conclusions, compounded by the potential distortion of findings by the media, can lead to the stigmatization of racial and ethnic groups.

Summary

It is essential that the scientific community and with those reporting and disseminating research findings continue to foster a socially responsible dialogue about genetic variation and human difference.

Race, socioeconomic status, and health: complexities, ongoing challenges, and research opportunities

This paper provides an overview of racial variations in health and shows that differences in socioeconomic status (SES) across racial groups are a major contributor to racial disparities in health. However, race reflects multiple dimensions of social inequality and individual and household indicators of SES capture relevant but limited aspects of this phenomenon. Research is needed that will comprehensively characterize the critical pathogenic features of social environments and identify how they combine with each other to affect health over the life course. Migration history and status are also important predictors of health and research is needed that will enhance understanding of the complex ways in which race, SES, and immigrant status combine to affect health. Fully capturing the role of race in health also requires rigorous examination of the conditions under which medical care and genetic factors can contribute to racial and SES differences in health. The paper identifies research priorities in all of these areas.

Sodium, blood pressure, and ethnicity: what have we learned?

An enormous amount of research has yielded significant knowledge about ethnic differences in sodium homeostasis and blood pressure regulation. Consistent findings such as greater sodium-sensitivity, lower potassium excretion and high higher serum sodium levels in African Americans need further exploration to define more precise physiological mechanisms. The genetic alleles associated with sodium homeostasis in relation to blood pressure have accounted for only a small proportion of the variance in blood pressure. Several allelic variants differ in frequency among ethnic groups and heat-adapted genetic variants have a high prevalence in low latitudes and hot, wet climates which lends support to the "sodium retention" hypothesis. The blood pressure disparities between African Americans and whites may, in part, be due to different allelic frequencies of genes associated with sodium homeostasis. However, with advances in genomics, environmental factors tend to be neglected in research. Better measures of environmental stress have recently been developed by anthropologists and should be included in research designs by investigators in other disciplines. Public health efforts should encourage food producers to reduce sodium content of its products, and physicians should encourage patients to reduce consumption of high sodium packaged and fast foods.

Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and established risk factors among populations of sub-Saharan African descent in Europe: a literature review

Background

Most European countries are ethnically and culturally diverse. Globally, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death. The major risk factors for CVD have been well established. This picture holds true for all regions of the world and in different ethnic groups. However, the prevalence of CVD and related risk factors vary among ethnic groups.

Methods

This article provides a review of current understanding of the epidemiology of vascular disease, principally coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and related risk factors among populations of Sub-Sahara African descent (henceforth, African descent) in comparison with the European populations in Europe.

Results

Compared with European populations, populations of African descent have an increased risk of stroke, whereas CHD is less common. They also have higher rates of hypertension and diabetes than European populations. Obesity is highly prevalent, but smoking rate is lower among African descent women. Older people of African descent have more favourable lipid profile and dietary habits than their European counterparts. Alcohol consumption is less common among populations of African descent. The rate of physical activity differs between European countries. Dutch African-Suriname men and women are less physically active than the White-Dutch whereas British African women are more physically active than women in the general population. Literature on psychosocial stress shows inconsistent results.

Conclusion

Hypertension and diabetes are highly prevalent among African populations, which may explain their high rate of stroke in Europe. The relatively low rate of CHD may be explained by the low rates of other risk factors including a more favourable lipid profile and the low prevalence of smoking. The risk factors are changing, and on the whole, getting worse especially among African women. Cohort studies and clinical trials are therefore needed among these groups to determine the relative contribution of vascular risk factors, and to help guide the prevention efforts. There is a clear need for intervention studies among these populations in Europe.

Biobehavior of the human love of salt

We are beginning to understand why humans ingest so much salt. Here we address three issues: The first is whether our salt appetite is similar to that in animals, which we understand well. Our analysis suggests that this is doubtful, because of important differences between human and animal love of salt. The second issue then becomes how our predilection for salt is determined, for which we have a partial description, resting on development, conditioning, habit, and dietary culture. The last issue is the source of individual variation in salt avidity. We have partial answers to that too in the effects of perinatal sodium loss, sodium loss teaching us to seek salt, and gender. Other possibilities are suggested. From animal sodium appetite we humans may retain the lifelong enhancement of salt intake due to perinatal sodium loss, and a predisposition to learn the benefits of salt when in dire need. Nevertheless, human salt intake does not fit the biological model of a regulated sodium appetite. Indeed this archetypal 'wisdom of the body' fails us in all that has to do with behavioral regulation of this most basic need.

Pharmaceutical meaning-making beyond marketing: racialized subjects of generic thiazide

In contrast to discussions of BiDil, this paper explores racial meaning-making processes around an old generic hypertension drug. By unpacking a vignette about race and thiazide outside marketing or medicine, it shows that racialization of drugs exceeds those spheres and moves in unpredictable ways.

Studying vulnerable populations: lessons from the Roma minority

There are important disparities in health outcomes between racial/ethnic minorities and majorities in all countries where minority health has been investigated. This holds true for the largest minority population of Europe, the Roma, although research data related to Roma are scarcer and more contested than for other minorities. We discuss major obstacles that hinder or prevent the collection of reliable data in Roma and other minorities. The definitions and classification systems on race/ethnicity vary widely, pointing to the social construction of both race and ethnicity. Imprecision in taxonomy and definition of target groups is compounded by challenges in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, along with ethnocentricity that shapes the perspectives and approaches of the researchers. However, administrative data collection on race/ethnicity serves legitimate purposes although such data must comply with less-stringent quality requirements as opposed to data meant for scientific analysis. Research on minorities should consider race/ethnicity as proxy indicators of complex health determinants, and should aim at dissecting these determinants into separate items. Careful documentation of methodology and active involvement of the minorities themselves can increase trust between the investigators and the research subjects, which can in turn improve research on minority health.

Reifying human difference: the debate on genetics, race, and health

The causes of racial and ethnic inequalities in health and the most appropriate categories to use to address health inequality have been the subject of heated debate in recent years. At the same time, genetic explanations for racial disparities have figured prominently in the scientific and popular press since the announcement of the sequencing of the human genome. To understand how such explanations assumed prominence, this essay analyzes the circulation of ideas about race and genetics and the rhetorical strategies used by authors of key texts to shape the debate. The authority of genetic accounts for racial and ethnic difference in disease, the author argues, is rooted in a broad cultural faith in the promise of genetics to solve problems of human disease and the inner truth of human beings that is intertwined with historical meanings attached to race. Such accounts are problematic for a variety of reasons. Importantly, they produce, reify, and naturalize notions of racial difference, provide a scientific rationale for racially targeted medical care, and distract attention from research that probes the complex ways in which political, economic, social, and biological factors, especially those of inequality and racism, cause health disparities.

Race and IQ: Molecular genetics as deus ex machina

During the last hundred years, the debate over the meaning of race has retained a highly consistent core, despite evolution of the technical details. Non-Europeans, and in particular, Africans, are assigned the role of deviants and outcasts, whose claim on our common humanity remains in doubt. Each time the technical facade of these racialist arguments is destroyed, the latest jargon and half-truths from the margins of science are used to rebuild them around the same core belief in Black inferiority. Because race is in part a genetic concept, the advent of molecular DNA technology has opened an important new chapter in this story. Unfortunately, the article by D. Rowe (2005, this issue, see record 2005-00117-007) begins from mistaken premises and merely restates the racialist view using the terminology of molecular genetics. No technology--even the awe-inspiring tools now available to DNA science--can overcome the handicap of fundamental conceptual errors. Race is not a concept that emerged from within modern genetics; rather, it was imposed by history, and its meaning is inseparable from that cultural origin. By ignoring its cultural meaning the reductionist narrative about race fails--both in the narrow terms of science and as a contribution to the broader social discourse.

Racial meanings and scientific methods: changing policies for NIH-sponsored publications reporting human variation

Conventional wisdom holds that race is socially constructed and not based on genetic differences. Cutting-edge genetic research threatens this view and hence also endangers the pursuit of racial equality and useful public health research. The most recent incarnation of racial genetics is not due to scientific discoveries about population differences per se, but follows from how the United States and other governments have organized racial categories. This article explains tensions in U.S. government guidelines and publications on the study of human genetic diversity, points out the absence of any compelling public health benefits that might justify this research, introduces conceptual tools for addressing the complicated heuristic and policy problems posed by medical population genetics, and offers two policy proposals to remedy the current problems.