Study: Reducing Racial Residential Segregation May Improve Health Outcomes

By Jonathan Springston, Editor, AHC Media

The authors of a recently published study discovered that African-Americans living in racially segregated neighborhoods exhibited high blood pressure, while this same population exhibited lower readings after moving to more integrated areas.

Several researchers from universities across the country studied longitudinal data from a geographically diverse group of more than 2,200 black adults 18-30 years of age who were screened during their initial participation in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which was conducted from 1985-1986, then re-tested several times over 25 years of follow-up.

Participants living in more segregated areas demonstrated small but statistically significant increases in systolic blood pressure. During the follow-up period, almost all study participants moved at least once. Those who moved from a highly segregated area to a more inclusive neighborhood demonstrated a decrease in systolic blood pressure, though researchers could not find a connection between relocation and changes in diastolic blood pressure.

“Our study suggests that the stress and the inadequate access to health-promoting resources associated with segregation may play a role in these increases in blood pressure,” David Goff, MD, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which partly funded the study, said in a statement. “While stress raises blood pressure, access to health-promoting resources, such as full-service grocery stores, recreation centers, and healthcare clinics, is critical to keeping blood pressure at healthier levels.”

For more critical analysis of the latest clinical research in cardiovascular medicine, be sure to check out Clinical Cardiology Alert.