May is National High Blood Pressure Month, and to check on this year’s numbers, iHealth has conducted a study with data from Practice Fusion and has published hypertension levels by city. Of the 17 cities presented, the two cities with the highest hypertension levels are Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 58 percent and 51.7 percent respectively.
CompDrug, a Columbus company that provides community-based health management programs, reports that people at higher risk for hypertension include African Americans, people over age 55, overweight citizens, those with a family history of high blood pressure and smokers.
Given these risk factors, we can look at the demographic makeup of Columbus and Philadelphia to see why hypertension levels are higher in those cities. According to World Population Statistics, Columbus has an African-American demographic makeup of 28 percent. Philadelphia’s African-American demographic tops that at 43 percent. Compare these two numbers with those of Seattle’s demographic coming in at about 4 percent. Seattle’s hypertension level is just under 20 percent.
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We can also look at the obesity rates of each state to help understand the nature of these high numbers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. United Health Foundation America’s Health Rankings shows Ohio’s obesity rate at 30.1 percent in 2013. Pennsylvania’s rate comes in just under that at 29.1 percent. When taking a look at these numbers compared to states with lower obesity rates like New York at 23.6 percent, we can start to uncover the reasoning behind the high hypertension levels in Columbus and Philadelphia.
Furthermore, an April 2011 study, conducted by Sterling’s BestPlaces for Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., ranked Columbus 16 and Philadelphia 21 out of 50 cities for high hypertension levels. iHealth included 15 other cities in the report. Check the list to see whether citizens of your city have their blood pressure under control.
When it comes to high blood pressure, Columbus and Philadelphia take the cake for the highest levels of 2013. Let’s hope for their sake that the cake is sodium free.
