Exploring racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension care among patients served by health centers in the United States

Some racial/ethnic minorities are more likely to have hypertension and experience increased hypertension‐related morbidity and mortality compared to whites. Health Resources and Services Administration‐funded health centers care for over 27 million patients, 62 percent of whom are racial/ethnic minorities. We assessed the presence of racial/ethnic disparities in (a) hypertension management and (b) hypertension outcomes among health center patients. We used data from the 2014 Health Center Patient Survey and performed multilevel logistic regression models to predict hypertension management counseling, patient adherence to counseling and medication regimen, management plan receipt, high blood pressure at last clinical visit, confidence in hypertension self‐management, and hypertension‐related emergency department (ED) episodes or hospitalizations in the past year. We controlled for patient characteristics including age, sex, education, nativity, health behaviors, health care access, and comorbidities. We found significantly higher odds of diet counseling (African Americans, OR: 1.87; Asian Americans, OR: 3.02, AIAN, OR: 2.01), reduced sodium intake (African American, OR: 2.42), and adherence to exercise counseling (African American, OR: 3.52; Asian Americans, OR: 2.93). We also found lower odds of taking hypertension control medication (AIAN, OR: 0.50) and higher odds of hypertension‐related ED visits (African Americans, OR: 3.61, AIAN, OR: 5.31). These results highlight the success of health centers in managing hypertension by race/ethnicity but found adverse hypertension outcomes for some groups. Racial/ethnically tailored efforts might be required to manage hypertension and improve outcomes.