Hypertension in Latin/Hispanic Population

The term Hispanic or Latino refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race according to the definition of the United States Census Bureau published in 2010. The term includes a very relevant part of the population of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to which around 50 million (16%) of the U.S. population has to be added. Brazil, French Guyana, and a few Caribbean islands are also included in the term LAC region.

The LAC region is extremely diverse but exists as a continent with historic entity and cultural, linguistic, and religious liaisons among the different countries. The territory exceeds 21 million square miles and the population approaches 600 million inhabitants. Marked health care disparities within countries exist related to striking economic differences that lead to important changes in health risk coverage and outcomes between the different countries. In fact the demographic, economic and social changes observed in LAC in recent years are the main contributors to explain the growing epidemic of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in this region. At the same time, all these facts explain why the literature related to cardiovascular (CV) risk and arterial hypertension in particular in the LAC region is both sparse and confusing. In this chapter we will review the most recent literature dealing with CV risk and arterial hypertension in Latin/Hispanic population both in LAC region and in the U.S.