Background. Racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension (HTN) prevalence continue to persist in United States. We aimed in this study to examine the racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension prevalence and to determine whether or not health disparities may be explained by racial/ethnic disparities in co-morbidities. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the prevalence of hypertension among African Americans (AAs), Caucasians, and Hispanics in the National Health Interview Survey, 2003. The overall sample comprised 30, 852 adults. Results. There was a statistically significant racial/ethnic variability in hypertension prevalence, with AA/Blacks with the highest prevalence, (3), . Hypertension was associated with co-morbidities, age, education, physical inactivity, marital status, income, sex, alcohol, and cigarette consumption, but not insurance. Relative to Caucasians, AAA/Blacks were 43% more likely while Hispanics were 40% less likely to report being diagnosed with high blood pressure, prevalence odds ratio (POR)？？=？？1.43, 99% CI, 1.25–1.64, , and POR？？=？？0.60, 99% CI, 0.55–0.66, respectively. After adjustment for the relevant covariates including co-morbidities, racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension persisted; thus compared to Caucasians, African Americans were 61% more likely to be told by their health care providers that they were hypertensive, adjusted prevalence odds ratio (APOR)？？=？？1.61, 99% CI, 1.39–1.86, . In contrast, Hispanics were 27% less likely to be diagnosed with hypertension compared to Caucasians, APOR？？=？？0.73, 99% CI, 0.68–0.79, . Conclusions. There was racial/ethnic variability in hypertension prevalence in this large sample of non-institutionalized US residents, with the highest prevalence of hypertension observed among African Americans. These disparities were not removed after controlling for relevant covariates including co-morbidities. 1. Introduction Hypertension remains one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease mortality in the United States population, affecting disproportionately non-Hispanic Blacks [1]. The etiology of hypertension is multifactorial, and incidence, prevalence, and mortality vary by race/ethnicity [2]. Variability by race/ethnicity in hypertension prevalence had been shown by several studies [3–5]. These studies continue to identify the African American (Blacks) ethnicity with the highest prevalence [4] and the ethnic group in which hypertension-related death is highest [5, 6]. Whereas evidence continues to demonstrate these health disparities, these variabilities
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