Familial aggregation of blood pressure in a Jewish population sample in Jerusalem among ethnic and religious groupings

Abstract

Parent‐child and spouse correlations were studied in a sample of 935 Jerusalem Jewish families consisting of 935 children aged 17–18 years and their parents. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were adjusted by regression for sex, age, weight, height, and seasonality. Mother‐child correlations for SBP (0.16) and DBP (0.15) were higher than those of father‐child (SBP = 0.13; DBP = 0.09). Mid parent‐child correlations were 0.20 for SBP and 0.14 for DBP. All parent‐child correlations were statistically significant. A test for heterogeneity of parent‐child correlations among the four ethnic origin groups (Europe/ America; Asia; North Africa; Israel), was not significant. Parent‐child correlations for SBP and DBP were highest in the European and Asian groups, lowest in the North Africans, and intermediate in the Israeli group. Spouse correlations both for SBP and DBP were statistically not different from zero. There was no significant ethnic heterogeneity. Familial aggregation of BP was further assessed within subgroups of families according to a measure of religiosity of the head of the family. The spouse correlation for SBP differed significantly (P < 0.05) according to level of religiosity. The highest spouse correlation (0.23) was observed if the husband had five or more years of religious education, compared with correlations of 0.01 and ‐0.06 for 1–4 and zero years of religious education respectively. Spouse correlation for DBP as well as mid parent‐child correlations showed a similar trend although less marked. The significantly higher spouse correlation in the religious group may be due to assortative mating, shared environmental factors (e.g. diet, smoking, exercise), shared psychosocial attributes, or a combination of these explanations. This finding requires confirmation and more detailed investigation.