Friday, January 27, 2006—There appears to be a racial disparity in rates of high blood pressure among Hispanic Americans, with Hispanic blacks facing a greater risk than Hispanic whites, a new study suggests.

Researchers say the tendency to group all Americans of Hispanic ancestry into one ethnic category may be "masking" a problem of high blood pressure among black Hispanics.

Some studies have suggested that Hispanic Americans have rates of high blood pressure that are similar to or lower than non-Hispanic white Americans'.

But the term "Hispanic" describes diverse groups of Spanish-speaking people of any racial background. And the new findings, published in the journal Ethnicity & Disease, point to a health disparity between black and white adults of Hispanic descent.

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