Blood Pressure Changes among Male Navaho Migrants to an Urban Environment

Des donnees comparatives sur la pression sanguine systolique et diastolique des Navahos de sexe masculin furent recueillies avant et apres leur emigration d'un milieu rural a un centre urbain. Les deux mesures furent significativement plus elevees apres l'emigration. Quelques facteurs causaux tels que le changement d'altitude, l'ingestion de gras satures et l'age furent elimines. D'un maniere pro-visoire, on conclut que des facteurs associes a l'emigration, tels qu'un changement dans les habitudes de repos, la pollution de l'air ainsi que la separation de la parente sont a l'origine de ces changements physiologiques.
Comparative data on systolic and diastolic blood pressures were obtained on male Navahos before and after migration from a rural to an urban environment. Both measures were significantly higher after migration. Various possible causes - such as change in altitude, saturated fat intake, and age - are eliminated. It is tentatively concluded that altered rest patterns, urban pollution, and separation from kin, i.e., things specific to the act of migration, are causally implicated.