Leaving Segregated Neighborhoods Lowers Blacks’ Blood Pressure
“African-Americans experience a significant drop in their blood pressure after they move out of highly segregated neighborhoods and into more integrated neighborhoods, researchers report Monday. A study involving more than 2,000 African-Americans found that those who moved from the most-segregated neighborhoods to less-segregated neighborhoods later experienced lower systolic blood pressure, a factor in heart attacks and strokes. ‘The big message here is that this study shines a light on one of the root causes of heart disease and stroke in our country,’ says David Goff, director of the division of cardiovascular diseases at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which funded the study. It was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.”