Women And High Blood Pressure

1 min

A study from Norway that tracked women who were diagnosed with high blood pressure in their early 40s found that even mild elevations at that age substantially increased the risk for heart disease and death later in life. The research began in 1992 and continued for an average of 16 years. The participants included 12,329 men and women whose average age was 41 when the study began. At the outset, the women had fewer risk factors for heart disease than the men. Fewer of them were smokers and they tended to have lower body mass indexes and lower cholesterol levels than the men. However, the study found that compared with women whose blood pressure was normal at the start of the study, those with stage one hypertension had more than twice the risk of developing heart disease as the study continued. (In men, this association was statistically insignificant.) The study controlled for other known risk factors, including diabetes, body mass index, cholesterol, smoking and physical activity.

Source:
Stage 1 hypertension, sex, and acute coronary syndromes during midlife: the Hordaland Health Study,” Ester Kringeland et al, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, May 16, 2021, doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwab068

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