Absence of siblings — a risk factor for hypertension?

To the Editor: We examined the relation between the presence and absence of siblings and hypertension in 1472 whites (676 men and 796 women) who participated in the Buffalo Blood Pressure Study conducted in 1961 on a random sample of households in the city of Buffalo, New York.¹ The subjects ranged in age from 20 to 70 years. In both sexes, the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension (adjusted for age, weight, education, and smoking status) were higher in participants who had no siblings than in those who had siblings (Table 1 ). All these differences were.