The Jamaican hypertensive: characteristics of black patients at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

Hypertension is the most common chronic disease of adults in the Caribbean today, affecting some 22% of this population (I); as a result, it contributes directly and indirectly to the leading causes of death in most of the English-speaking islands (2). While many epidemiologic surveys (3, 4, 5) have defined the prevalence of this disease in the community, there are very few studies that document the clinical problems associated with hypertension in Jamaica. This article provides some basic data about the clinical characteristics of the black hypertensive Jamaican and supplies information useful for comparison with populations from other parts of the world. Black hypertensives in Africa and the Caribbean and those in the United States and United Kingdom exhibit some interesting similarities; but with increasing “Westernization,” changes in the pattern of the disease can be expected. Comparative studies will help to separate those differences that may properly be attributed to ethnic factors from those which are largely determined by environmental variables.