查看文章

Objective: Blacks in an urban environment seem to be more vulnerable to excessive increases in blood pressure during daily life events. This greater cardiovascular reactivity during acute stress situations in urban Blacks may lead to the development of hypertension in their later lives. Because Blacks in South Africa are involved in a massive process of urbanization, which may lead to chronic diseases of lifestyle like hypertension and diabetes, this study was undertaken to compare the cardiovascular reactivity patterns of urbanized and rural Black males in the North-West province of South Africa.

Design: Two hundred twenty-three Black males of different age groups, Group 1: younger than 25 years of age; Group 2: between 25 and 44 years of age; and Group 3: 45 years of age and older. Participants were randomly selected from rural and urbanized settlements.

Methods: After resting blood pressure was recorded …