Ethnic and gender inequalities in the prevalence of elevated blood pressure in the general population of Cochabamba: an intersectional analysis of health inequities

Abstract

Health inequalities are commonly evaluated in a single dimension of analysis and little is known about the summative or multiplicative effect when 2 or more social dimensions are combined; representing a challenge for the prevention and control of High Blood Pressure (HBP). Objective: Analyze the factors involved in the inequalities of the prevalence of HBP in the inter-sectional space of the processes of social advantage and disadvantage by ethnic and gender reference. Methods: Observational, cross-sectional study with an intersectional approach. Subjects over 18 years of age with permanent residence in Cochabamba (n = 10,595), selected by means of three-stage random sampling, participated. The WHO-STEPS survey was used to collect information on HBP and the risk factors associated. Four intersectional positions were constructed by the combination of gender and ethnicity. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied to estimate the contributions of the explanatory factors of the inequalities. Results: The prevalence of HBP was higher in mestizos men (10.76%); the disparity by gender reference was more important between mestizos (3.74%) and indigenous people (3.11%); the intersectional disparity between extreme groups (3.53%) was greater than the disparity between middle groups (3.32%). Age, type of work, and lifestyles contributed more to explain these differences. Conclusions: The HBP is not distributed according to the expected patterns of social disadvantage in the intersectional space of ethnicity and gender. A high social advantage was related to higher prevalence of HBP, as well as associated behavioral risk factors.