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Significant Associative Factors for Hypertension Among New US Immigrants: An exploration of the 2003 New Immigrant Survey (NIS) Data

Marie-Anne S. Rosemberg, Vicki Johnson-Lawrence, Ola S. Rostant and Marjorie C. McCullagh

Background: Immigrants make up a large number of the US population and are at risk for poor health outcomes such as hypertension, a major public health concern. Little is known about the associating factors of hypertension among recent US immigrants.

Method: Using the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) data with a subsample of 7539, we attempt to address this gap. We ran descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis to analyze the data using covariates including age, education, gender, age, weight, and smoking, with hypertension as the outcome variable.

Results: Only 10% of our sample had hypertension. Controlling for other factors, employed participants had lower odds of hypertension (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.60, 0.99). Length of stay was associated with increased odds of hypertension (OR=1.01, 95% CI =1.00-1.02). Additional factors increasing odds of hypertension included women (OR=1.52, 95% CI=1.24-1.86), older age (OR=1.08, 95% CI=1.07-1.09), and body weight (OR=1.01, 95% CI=1.01-1.02).

Conclusion: This study accentuates the underreporting of hypertension among immigrant populations. The findings also indicate the need for nurses and other health providers to develop systems of care that are sensitive to the unique needs of this population. More studies are needed to explore the extent to which those associative factors identified impact hypertension development and management among new immigrants.