As scientists struggled to find the genetic evidence they thought must be out there, one team led by a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health decided to look at factors other than race that might correlate with high blood pressure. They discovered that level of education, which often correlates with income and social class, was a far better predictor of hypertension in an individual than the percentage of African ancestry they had. Each year of education was associated with an extra half millimetre of mercury decrease in blood pressure readings.
