January 7, 2005Open Access
Blood pressure demographics: nature or nurture ... ... genes or environment?
Key Result
Environmental and psychosocial factors, rather than purely genetic predisposition, may play a more significant role in explaining the geographical and ethnic differences in hypertension prevalence.
PICO
P
Population
Hypertension
E
Exposure / Comparator
Environmental and psychosocial factors vs Genetic factors
Limitations
- Referenced studies suffer from shortcomings of retrospective, pooled designs with varying inclusion criteria and observational errors.
Abstract
Hypertension is a growing worldwide problem associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, the rates of prevalence of hypertension are higher in some populations than others. Although ethnic and genetic factors have been implied in the past to explain this, the environmental influence and psychosocial factors may play a more important role than is widely accepted. Examining the non-genetic influences in future hypertension research may be necessary in order to clearly define the local blood pressure demographics and the global hypertensive disease burden.
Cite This Study
Tomson et al. (Fri,) conducted a editorial in Hypertension. Environmental and psychosocial factors vs. Genetic factors was evaluated. Environmental and psychosocial factors, rather than purely genetic predisposition, may play a more significant role in explaining the geographical and ethnic differences in hypertension prevalence.