Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40604536›Full record

ArticleBMC public health2025

Differential associations between education and blood pressure by gender and race.

Lucia Pacca, Amanda M Irish, Catherine dP Duarte, Alicia R Riley, Mark J Pletcher, Zinzi D Bailey, Anusha M Vable

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In one paragraph

Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Lucia PaccaDepartment of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Pride Hall, 2540 23rd Street, 5th Floor, 94110, San Francisco, CA, USA. lucia.pacca@ucsf.edu.
Amanda M IrishDepartment of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Pride Hall, 2540 23rd Street, 5th Floor, 94110, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Catherine dP DuarteDepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Alicia R RileySociology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Mark J PletcherDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Zinzi D BaileyDepartment of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Anusha M VableDepartment of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Pride Hall, 2540 23rd Street, 5th Floor, 94110, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Funding

American Heart Association Career Development Award 19CDA34660304
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPrevious research suggests education is inversely associated with blood pressure, but little work has examined whether this relationship differs by race and gender jointly. Identifying the most vulnerable groups may inform hypertension prevention strategies. In this population-based study, we investigate the association between education and blood pressure overall and across race-by-gender subgroups.

methodsOur analytic sample included participants aged 50 + to the US Health and Retirement Study data from 2006 to 2008 (N = 24,526). Our exposure was education, measured as self-reported years of schooling and modeled as a spline with a knot and discontinuity at 12 years representing high school diploma. We used generalized estimating equations to estimate the relationship between education and repeated measurements of two blood pressure outcomes: systolic blood pressure (SBP) and hypertension (HTN), then included race-by-gender interactions with education to evaluate differential associations. All models were adjusted for age, birthplace, parents’ education, and survey year.

resultsMean age was 64.4 years, mean SBP was 129.9 mmHg, and HTN prevalence was 63.1%. Overall, below 12 years, each additional year of education was not associated with blood pressure, while twelve years of schooling was associated with lower blood pressure (b=-1.02; 95% CI: -2.04, 0.00 for SBP) and each additional year of education after 12 years was associated with lower SBP and lower odds of HTN (e.g., SBP: b=-0.75 mmHg; 95% CI: -0.88, -0.62). We observed some differential relationships by demographic subgroup such that, among Black men, 12 years of education predicted higher odds of HTN compared to White men (interaction OR = 1.60; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.52), and each additional year of education after 12 years was associated with larger SBP benefits for White, Hispanic and Black women compared to White men.

conclusionsWe found an overall protective relationship between more education and blood pressure/hypertension such that each additional year of college education was associated with lower blood pressure/hypertension, particularly among White and Hispanic women. However, we also found evidence of diminished benefits to high school degree attainment among Black men compared to other groups in hypertension prevalence.

Indexed as

Blood PressureEducational StatusHypertensionRacial GroupsAgedBlack or African AmericanFemaleHispanic or LatinoHumansMaleMiddle AgedSex FactorsUnited StatesWhiteBlood pressureCardiovascular diseaseDifferential returnsEducationGenderHypertensionRacial and ethnic groupsRacial and gender inequalities

Identifiers

PMID40604536
PMCPMC12220582

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.