Effects of parental history of hypertension and urbanization on blood pressure in zimbabweans

The increasing prevalence of essential hypertension is a growing public health concern for Zimbabwe and other African countries. Two important risk factors for hypertension are urbanization and parental history of hypertension. The relations among parental history of hypertension, urbanization, and blood pressures (BPs) are poorly understood. The objective of this study is to clarify these relations in a population of urbanized. African, young adults. The relation between parental history of hypertension and urbanization on resting BPs and BP responses to a menial arithmetic stressor was examined in a group of normotensive, Black medical students with (n= 36) and without (n = 34) a parental history of high BP.and with (n = 49) and without (n = 19) a parental history of urbanization. Results indicate that those with a positive parental history of high BP had higher resting BPs and greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) increases in response to laboratory stress, when compared to their negative parental history counterparts. Further, those with parents residing in urban areas had higher resting SBPs than those with parents residing in rural areas. However, no reactivity differences were apparent between the urban and rural parent groups. These data suggest that although parental history for hypertension influences both resting and reactivity BPs, parental history of urbanization may influence only resting BP.