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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Blood pressure and mortality in elderly people aged 85 and older
— community based study | | Author(s) | Hendriek C Boshuizen, Gerbrand J Izaks, Stef van Burren |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 316, 13 June 1998 |
| Pages | pp 1780-1784 |
| Keywords | Blood pressure ; Death ; Living in the community ; Social surveys ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | To determine whether the relation between blood pressure and all cause mortality differs in older people over 85 as compared with the young old, and to see whether this relation can be explained by poorer health among those with low blood pressure, the authors analysed the relation between blood pressure and mortality in a 5 to 7 year study of residents of Leiden, Netherlands aged 85 and over. 621 deaths occurred, and extensive data on health status was available. There was a paradoxical inverse relation between blood pressure and all cause mortality: higher blood pressure was associated with lower mortality. This inverse relation seems mainly to be due to higher mortality in those with low blood pressure: low blood pressure seems to be caused by poor health. There was no longer a significant relationship between blood pressure and all cause mortality after adjusting for health status. However, there was a positive relation between diastolic blood pressure and mortality from both cardiovascular causes and stroke. Treating hypertension does not shorten life expectancy among the over 85s, and it might prevent disability from stroke. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980828202 A |
| Classmark | BKL: CW: K4: 3F: 76H * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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