LOS ANGELES, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Black American adults are at higher risk to develop a type of treatment-resistant hypertension when they experienced adverse effects of economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status, known as social determinants of health, according to a new study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Factors linked to this increased risk included having less than a high school education; a household income less than 35,000 U.S. dollars; not seeing a friend or relative in the past month; not having someone to care for them if ill or disabled; lack of health insurance; living in a disadvantaged neighborhood; and living in a state with low public health infrastructure.
Over a period of 9.5 years, 24 percent of Black adults developed the condition compared with 15.9 percent of white adults, according to the study.
Black adults are more likely to face adverse social determinants of health than White adults, the study suggests.
Addressing social determinants of health could reduce the racial disparities seen in apparent treatment-resistant hypertension and reduce the increased risk of stroke and heart attack in the Black American population, the NIH said in a news release on Thursday.
