Antihypertensive Medication Use: Implications for Inequities in Cardiovascular Risk and Opportunities for Intervention

Antihypertensive medication use protects against adverse health effects of hyper-tension. Residents of low-income urban communities are disproportionately Black and Latino, and may experience heightened cardiovascular health risks due to reduced medication use. We estimate the odds of antihypertensive medication use by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position. Data are from the Healthy Environments Partnership Community Survey, restricted to 377 hypertensive participants. Antihypertensive medication use was defined as people with hypertension who were taking antihypertensive medication. Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in medication use were examined using multivariate logistic regression. Odds of antihypertensive medication use were lower for people with incomes 1.00–1.99 times the poverty level (OR=0.75, p=.05) compared with those ≥2.00 times poverty, and for Latinos (OR=0.48, p<.01) and Whites (OR=0.50, p<.01) compared with Blacks. Findings suggest a need to improve hypertension screening and treatment for residents of low-to moderate-income urban communities, with attention to subgroups who may have limited health care access.