| Abstract
| - Abu Ghosh is a highly inbred community of more than 2000 Israeli Arabs in which all members are descendants of two brothers and in which individual blood pressures, rates of hypertension, and corresponding morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease are inordinately high. Accordingly, patterns of familial aggregation of blood pressure were investigated to determine if the population structure of this community might affect familial aggregation. In a study of children aged 2-14 years, significant familial aggregation of blood pressure was found in 797 children in 220 families. Intraclass correlation coefficients for systolic, Korotkoff IV and Korotkoff V diastolic blood pressures were 0.20, 0.21, and 0.26, respectively (all p< 0.001). When corrected for Quetelet's index, the correlation coefficients were 0.21,0.19, and 0.23, respectively (all p< 0.001). Father-child correlation coefficients were 0.15, 0.18 and 0.12 with p-values of p = 0.003, p< 0.001 and p = 0.024, respectively. Mother-child correlations were not significant. Adjustment for Quetelet's index increased the father-child correlations (p< 0.001), but the mother-child correlations remained not significant. Although father-son correlations tended to be stronger than father-daughter correlations, and mother-daughter correlations tended to be stronger than mother-son correlations, these were trends and not statistically significant. Although the Abu Ghosh community is an extended family of common, known ancestry, the sib-sib aggregations were not different from those found in random families, but the father-child aggregations were unique and warrant further study.
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