African American Hypertension Research Paper

Hypertension Health Hazard in the African American Communities
Hypertension (HTN) is a genetic disease which tends to run in families. Even though every race and ethnicity can be affected by HTN the highest prevalence is in the African American communities (Opara, Hawkins, Sundaram, Merchant, Rasmussen & Holmes, 2013). During my survey, I conversed with 50 people in my community, 48 had a mother or father with HTN, the other two were uncertain. Twenty-five of the 50 people I conversed with admitted to being diagnosed with HTN. Only five of the 25 diagnosed with HTN checked their blood pressure (BP) on a daily basis. In the United States, HTN is the leading cause of mortality among people with cardiovascular disease (Opara et al., 2013). The
The community that I reside is predominately African American. African American generally speaking, have “the highest incidence, prevalence and mortality of HTN” (Opara et al., 2013, p.1). Hypertension is a genetic disease that tends to run in families. “Other predictors of hypertension include comorbidities, family income, and other sociodemographic and prognostic relevant variable age, sex, education level, employment status, martial status, body mass index, cigarette smoking, physical activity and alcohol drinking status” (Opara et al., 2013, p.2). With the enactment of health care reform, access and utilization of health care is no longer a predictor variable (Opara et al., 2013).
Goals for the health risk hazard.
The goals for my community would be to increase their knowledge on predisposition factors for developing HTN and lifestyle modifications that need to be incorporated into daily living to slow the onset of HTN, because of its genetic predisposition. Education and demonstration is needed for how to take a BP, normal BP levels, and the importance of taking your BP before taking prescribed blood pressure medication. Finally, education is needed for understanding HTN treatment therapy, the importance of taking medication as prescribed, common side effects and adverse reaction to the medication.
Interventions, plans and actions needed to reach
Educating high school adolescent and their parents on their risk factors for developing HTN and the steps that one can take to reduce their risk would hopefully lessen the number of newly diagnosed HTN. Free monthly BP screening can educate the middle age adults on their risk for developing HTN and can possibly save a life, because there are people walking around with a BP 220\118 with a headache taking over the counter aspirin. The free BP monitor would help the persons currently on an anti-hypertension regiment better communicate with the health care provider if he or she is not getting good BP control on their medication (Harman, Walker, Charbonneau, Akylbekova, Nelson & Wyatt, 2013). Hillary Clinton said it best, “It takes a village to rise a family.” It takes community health nurses, active in their communities to help the people rise above health disparities affecting their