Higher blood pressures of urban migrants from an African low-blood pressure population are not due to selective migration.
A longitudinal study has shown that migrants from a remote Kenyan low-blood pressure (BP) community living in an urban environment had significantly higher BPs than a cohort of matched, nonmigrant controls. Selective migration was thought to be the likely explanation for this observation, but the BPs of 90 males studied prior to migration were almost identical to those found in the age-matched rural based controls studied in the low-BP community from which they came (120.9/59.0 mm Hg vs 120.5/60.1 mm Hg). Hence, in view of these premigration data supported by other evidence from the Kenyan Luo Migrant Study, it appears that the higher BP levels of the Luo migrants are not due to selective migration but are consequent upon environmental changes, including changes in electrolyte intake, which occur rapidly after migration.
Department of Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, England.
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Khaw
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D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa; D001794:Blood Pressure; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D014171:Transients and Migrants; D014504:Urban Health