Hypertension in the Detroit Region

Hypertension, or a high blood pressure above 130/80, is all too common in the City of Detroit and the greater Detroit Region. Hypertension remains a leading health risk in America, most especially among underserved and minority populations.

As home to one of the largest Black populations in the country, Detroit has certainly not been immune to the dangers posed by hypertension. Recently, the American Heart Association took yet another step toward addressing the problem when it awarded $20 million in grants to five scientific research teams around the country, including a $2.6 million grant to Wayne State University. The funding will help drive a four-year project at Wayne State known as LEAP HTN, which stands for "Linkage Empowerment and Access to Prevent Hypertension." LEAP HTN deploy Wayne Health mobile units to provide direct, personalized health care and coaching to Black people with high blood pressure living in select under-resourced neighborhoods in Detroit. Community health workers will help people in the study develop and follow a personalized, flexible health plan and, throughout the year, researchers will regularly compare hypertension and other health factors of people in the program to those of people in the community who also have high blood pressure but didn't take part in the program.