Environmental Influence on Hypertension in California

Meadowlands Assembly Hall, Dominican University of California

Health outcomes are not solely defined by biological factors (such as nutrition, genetics, and age) and sociological factors (such as ethnicity). The environment in which an individual lives in is equally an important predictor of an individual’s health and susceptibility of acquiring hypertension. Living in a neighborhood conducive to walking has showed relatively lower rates of hypertension than environments not. Other important factors that could be used as basis of comparison to prevalence rates of hypertension include: availability of health food outlets, type of food outlets, and amount of parks located in the area.