Racial blood pressure gap to blame for deaths of 8,000 blacks yearly

The lives of nearly 8,000 black Americans could be saved each year if doctors could figure out a way to bring their average blood pressure down to the average level of whites, a study has found.

The gap between the races in controlling blood pressure is well-known, but the resulting number of lives lost startled some scientists.

"We expected it to be big, but it was even larger than we anticipated," said the lead author, Dr. Kevin Fiscella of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The study, released Monday in the Annals of Family Medicine, is being called the first to calculate the lives lost because of racial disparities in blood pressure control.

High blood pressure increases a person's chances for heart disease, stroke and other serious problems. But it's easy to check for and usually can be controlled through exercise, diet and inexpensive pills.

For decades, doctors have noted that higher percentages of black Americans have high blood pressure than whites. The reasons for that include poverty and cultural habits.

The study suggesting 8,000 black lives are lost because of uncontrolled blood pressure is based on earlier research that finds that about 40 percent of black adults have high blood pressure, compared with about 30 percent of whites.

Fiscella and his colleague, Kathleen Holt, made a series of calculations. They took estimates of how each point of increased blood pressure affects the likelihood of death, and put it in a formula that included the difference in black and white blood pressure readings.

Those differences caused about 5,500 extra deaths from heart disease and about 2,200 deaths from stroke each year.

The second study, done in England, looked at the electronic medical records of about 8,900 patients in southwest London, who are covered by that country's national health insurance system.

Researchers found black patients with high blood pressure had significantly higher readings than white or Asian patients, even though blacks were prescribed more medications. The researchers also looked at patients who were sick with one or more conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes. They found that blood pressure control was much worse in blacks than whites. Patients' failure to regularly take their medicine may be one factor. Another may be that certain medications work better for blacks, but some doctors may be overlooking that difference, said Millett, a consultant in public health for Imperial College.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said changes need to be made to make sure minority patients can get good medical care when they need it.

ASSOCIATED PRESS