Single-parent house tied to hypertension in offspring

A new study of black men suggests that living with both parents in childhood reduces the risk for high blood pressure in adulthood. Previous studies have found an association of hypertension with childhood poverty,but this analysis,published online in Hypertension,is the first to find a link between high blood pressure and a childhood spent in a single-parent household. Researchers studied 515 black men older than 20 between 2001 and 2008. More than half of the men had high blood pressure and about one-third never lived with both parents. They found that compared with men who never lived with both parents,men who had lived with both parents at any time in their lives had an average systolic blood pressure that was 4.9 mm of mercury lower. Among those who had lived with both parents for between one and 12 years,the average was 6.5 mm of mercury lower.