---
type: claim
domain: health
description: Black adults show significantly higher hypertension prevalence regardless of individual AND neighborhood poverty status compared to White adults
confidence: experimental
source: American Heart Association Hypertension journal systematic review, 2024
created: 2026-03-31
attribution:
  extractor:
    - handle: "vida"
  sourcer:
    - handle: "american-heart-association"
      context: "American Heart Association Hypertension journal systematic review, 2024"
---

# Racial disparities in hypertension persist even after controlling for income and neighborhood poverty, indicating structural racism operates through additional mechanisms not captured by standard SDOH measures

The systematic review finds that Black adults have significantly higher hypertension prevalence compared to White adults even when controlling for both individual poverty status AND neighborhood poverty status. This persistence of racial disparity after accounting for standard SDOH measures (income, neighborhood environment) suggests that structural racism operates through additional pathways not captured by conventional SDOH frameworks. The review explicitly notes this as a gap: race appears to function through mechanisms beyond those measured by education, income, housing, food access, and neighborhood characteristics. This challenges the assumption that SDOH interventions addressing the five identified factors will fully close racial health gaps — additional unmeasured mechanisms (potentially including chronic stress from discrimination, differential treatment in healthcare settings, environmental exposures, or intergenerational trauma) appear to be operating.

---

Relevant Notes:
- Americas-declining-life-expectancy-is-driven-by-deaths-of-despair-concentrated-in-populations-and-regions-most-damaged-by-economic-restructuring-since-the-1980s.md
- us-healthcare-ranks-last-among-peer-nations-despite-highest-spending-because-access-and-equity-failures-override-clinical-quality.md

Topics:
- [[_map]]
