Untitled - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative - Memorial ...

'"
comparable to t h e high 57% repor ted i n zaria , also in Nigeria
( 19 4,19 5 ) •
The one f ac t or found t o b e strongly associated wi th t he
occurrence of postpartum hy pertension i n t h i s study sample was
the ethnic or igin of s ubjects. The d i s ea s e occurre d more
frequently in thos e sub jects whos e ethn ic origins were from
the t r i be s bas ed in the northe r n parts o f Ghana. Although
persons in t he "n or t he r n" ethnic group formed 19% of the
entire study group seen at follow u p t hey ecccunt.ed fo r 4 3 %: of
the hypertensive cases . Thus one in every five individuals
from a northe rn ethnic origin were hypertensive compared with,
f or example, on e in every 15 Ashanti s Ubjects 1 a three-fold
h i gh e r risk.
This finding r a i s e s serious questions because it presents
a picture sim ilar t o that obs e rved in Nigeria. The re, women in
t he no r the r n s avanna belts o f Zaria were f ound to have higher
r ates o f peat.par-tum hypertens i on and also peripartum cardiac
failure (a disorder associated with postpartum hyper t ension) ,
t han t hose in the sou t he r n city of I bada n . It should b e noted
however, that the women grouped under vnc r t bern e t hnic origin"
in the present study i ncluded SUbjects f rom closely rehted
tribes of the Gur l an gu a ge g r olJ.p who reside in the norther n
savan na belts of t he country a nd a r e t here f or e no t the more o r
l e s s s i ngle ethnic group observed i n the Zaria study.