Opeyemi O Adeloye^1,, Samuel Headley¹

Background This study was undertaken to describe the prevalence of hypertension among the black populations of Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. Methods A search was made using grey literatures and major electronic databases including PubMed, Cochrane, Google Scholar, and Embase for population-based studies published between January 1, 2017 to September 15, 2022, reporting the prevalence of hypertension for adults aged ≥ 18 years living in Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. A random effects model to estimate the pooled prevalence across included studies was employed. Findings A total of 6,779 articles were screened and 351 full-text articles were obtained to assess for inclusion in this review. A total of 274 unique studies with 186 data points in all 28 African countries, 13 Caribbean, and 5 North American countries recognized by the United Nations were reviewed. The prevalence of hypertension in Africa ranged from 23.3 to 42.0%, in the Caribbean, it ranged from 26.5 to 48.8% while in North America, the range was 31.7 to 54% from individual studies. The overall percentage was 32.6% in Africa, 37.6% in the Caribbean, and 42.8% in North America. Prevalence did not differ statistically by sex, place of residence, African, Caribbean, or American subregion. In separate studies, older age and overweight or obesity were independently associated with hypertension. Overall, the GRADE assessment suggested moderate quality evidence in the results. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of hypertension in the populations of North America, the Caribbean, and Africa. This is true of both urban and rural areas.

High blood pressure, blacks, countries, health, Urban, Rural, sex