Hypertension (high blood pressure) and coronary heart disease are two of the top health problems facing Americans today. According to the latest statistics released by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program in October 1992, an estimated fifty million Americans have high blood pressure and about thirty-five million have some degree of heart disease. Every year, these conditions result in approximately 1.5 million heart attacks and 500,000 strokes; of this number, about 750,000 of them are fatal.( Bell, P. 2002.) Among African-Americans, cardiovascular disease is even more epidemic and problematic. Some recent studies estimate that as many as 71 percent of all African-American adults may have high blood pressure compared with about 60 percent of the adult White population. In fact, Blacks are more than twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as Whites. In addition, hypertension in Black Americans tends to appear at an earlier age and is often not treated as aggressively as cases of hypertension in Whites. (Bell, P. 2002.)
Although the prevalence of coronary heart disease is similar among Black and White Americans, a heart attack is more likely to be fatal in African-Americans. Why is there such a disparity between Blacks and Whites when it comes to cardiovascular disease? The answer to that question has yet to be answered with any degree of certainty, mainly because very few long-term, controlled studies have been done among Black populations. Of course, African Americans continue to suffer from a profound lack of access to health insurance, health care, and health care education. For instance, a recent survey showed that African-Americans were about twice as likely as Whites to receive medical care in hospital clinics, emergency rooms, and other facilities with poor continuity of care (i.e., patients are likely to see a different doctor on every visit)................
