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Peter McCarron a Department of Social Medicine, University of
Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR, b Department of Public Health, University
of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ
Correspondence to: Peter McCarron,
Surveillance Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and
Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, 6130 Executive
Boulevard, Executive Plaza North, Suite 4097, Bethesda, MD 20892-7350, USA mccarrop{at}mail.nih.gov
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Abstract |
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Objectives:
To examine the changes in blood pressure
over time in a cohort of young adults attending university between 1948 and 1968.
Design:
Cross sectional study.
Setting:
Glasgow University.
Participants:
12 414 students aged 16-25 years
9248
men (mean age 19.9 years) and 3164 women (19.2 years)
who participated in health screening on entering university between 1948 and 1968.
Main outcome measures:
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Results:
In male students mean systolic blood pressure adjusted for age decreased from 134.5 (95% confidence interval 133.8 to 135.2) mm Hg in those born before 1929 to 125.7 (125.0 to 126.3) mm
Hg in those born after 1945, and diastolic blood pressure
dropped from 80.3 (79.8 to 80.8) mm Hg to 74.7 (74.2 to 75.1) mm
Hg. For female students the corresponding declines were from 129.0 (127.5 to 130.5) mm Hg to 120.6 (119.8 to 121.4) mm
Hg and from 79.7 (78.7 to 80.6) mm Hg to 77.0 (76.5 to 77.5) mm Hg.
Adjustment for potential confounding factors made little difference to
these findings. The proportion of students with hypertension declined
substantially in both sexes.
Conclusions:
Substantial declines in systolic and
diastolic blood pressure over time were occurring up to 50 years ago in young adults who were not taking antihypertensive medication. Since
blood pressure tracks into adult life, the results of the cross
sectional comparisons suggest that factors acting in early life may be
important in determining population risk of cardiovascular disease.
Changes in such factors may have made important contributions to the
decline in rates of cardiovascular diseases, particularly stroke, seen
in developed countries during the past century.
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What is already known on this topic
What this study adds
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Introduction |
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Mortality from stroke has declined dramatically in developed countries throughout most of the past century, 1 2 and more recently mortality from coronary heart disease has also decreased.1 Raised blood pressure is a major modifiable risk factor for both conditions.3 Since blood pressure in young adults is also positively associated with mortality from cardiovascular disease in later life,4 decreases in blood pressure in this age group could underlie declines in mortality from cardiovascular disease.
Blood pressure tracks from childhood through to later
life.5 Examining trends in blood pressure in young adults,
in whom blood pressure is largely uninfluenced by disease, medication, or behavioural changes consequent on morbidity, can help to elucidate the population determinants of blood pressure. To date, however, few
studies have investigated such trends.6 We report on the changes in blood pressure over time in a cohort of Glasgow University students born between 1925 and 1950.
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Methods |
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Full details of the study are available elsewhere.7 Briefly, students attending Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968 were invited to participate in an ongoing health survey consisting of a questionnaire and clinical examination. Data collected included sociodemographic details, health behaviours, and medical history. Height, weight, and blood pressure were also recorded.
A total of 15 322 students (11 755 men and 3567 women) participated in the study. Students born before 1925 (319), with unknown date of birth (2), or aged over 25 years at examination (1324) were excluded from the analyses, as were two students with lower systolic than diastolic blood pressure and 104 students without a record of blood pressure. Students with missing data on potential confounding variables (1159) were also excluded.
Statistical analyses
Year of birth was divided into five bands: 1925-9, 1930-4, 1935-9, 1940-4, and 1945-50. Linear regression analyses were used to examine
trends in blood pressure. Fully adjusted mean blood pressures were then
calculated, controlled for the effects of smoking (yes/no), height
(metres), body mass index (kg/m2), father's
social class (I-V), and age at menarche (
11, 12, 13, 14,
15
years). Likelihood ratio tests were used to test for a linear trend in
blood pressure for each one year increase in birth year. To assess the
change over time in the proportion of individuals with normal and high
blood pressure, blood pressure adjusted for age was categorised as
optimal (<120/80 mm Hg), normal (120-129/80-84 mm Hg), high normal
(130-139/85-89 mm Hg, hypertension stage 1 (140-159/90-99 mm Hg),
hypertension stage 2 (160-179/100-109 mm Hg), or hypertension stage 3 (
180/110 mm Hg)8 and presented for different birth
bands. Trend in blood pressure category was examined by using ordinal
logistic regression. Analyses were carried out with Stata
6.0.9
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Results |
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After exclusions, 12 412 students (9248 men and 3164 women) remained eligible for analysis. Male students were slightly older than female ones, with a mean age of 19.9 (SD 1.8) years versus 19.2 (1.4) years. Systolic blood pressure was higher in male students (130.9 (13.0) mm Hg) than in female students (124.0 (12.1) mm Hg), whereas diastolic blood pressure was marginally lower in male students (77.0 (8.6) mm Hg v 77.7 (7.5) mm Hg).
Trends in blood pressure
Table 1 shows the changes in blood pressure with increasing
birth band. As results adjusted for age were similar for the full
cohort and for those people with data on confounding variables, only
the latter are reported here. There was little difference between blood
pressure adjusted for age and fully adjusted blood
pressure.
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Trends in hypertension
Most students had optimal, normal, or high normal blood pressure
(table 2). Most students with high blood pressure had stage 1 hypertension; 87.4% of all men with hypertension and 92.3% of all
women with hypertension were in this category. Table 3 shows a
linear increase in normotension and decrease in hypertension with
increasing birth band in both sexes
(P<0.0001).
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Discussion |
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Substantial downward trends in blood pressure occurred in male and female students attending the University of Glasgow between 1948 and 1968, and remained after confounding factors were controlled for.
Strengths and weaknesses of the study
The current study is large, and data are available for both sexes.
As details of how blood pressure was recorded and of the identity of
the observers were not available we cannot assess observer variation.
Almost 74% of valid readings ended in 0 or 5; however, although this
might attenuate the magnitude of any trend uncovered, it would have
little effect on the direction of these associations.10
Also, as diastolic blood pressure in women was lower than that in men
at the beginning of the study period but higher at the end, and as any
systematic change in measurement protocol should have affected readings
in both sexes similarly, it is unlikely that such a change could have
resulted in the substantial trends observed.
Trends in blood pressure
In a study from Queen's University, Belfast, blood pressure
declined during the period 1948-70 from 131/78 mm Hg to
123/72 mm Hg in male students and from 122/78 mm Hg to 110/70 mm Hg in female students.
11 12
US national
health and nutrition examination surveys from 1960 to 1991 showed small
increments in both mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure in
men and women aged 18-29 years between the first two surveys (1960-2 and 1971-4), but since then blood pressure has declined in both sexes.6 A limitation of the above studies is that the role of confounding was not adequately assessed.
Trends in hypertension
The prevalence of hypertension in the current study is similar to
that in the Johns Hopkins precursors study.13 In that
study, which was smaller and restricted to male medical students, 3.5%
of participants (mean age 22 years) who graduated between 1948 and 1964 had grade 2 hypertension or worse compared with 2.5% of male students
in Glasgow. In the US national health and nutrition examination surveys
the prevalence of stage 2 hypertension or worse in white men aged 18-29 increased between the first and third surveys and then declined,
whereas in similarly aged women the prevalence showed a continual
decline over the survey period, 1960-91.6
Explanation of trends
The substantial decline in blood pressure is not accounted for by
confounding factors. Neither can the use of antihypertensive drugs
explain the trends reported here as most of the measurements were
carried out before antihypertensive drugs were available and to our
knowledge none of the students was taking such medication.
the group from which most of the
participants in this study came.16 Changes in consumption of other foods were proportionately much less. Accurate assessment of
levels of dietary constituents in the first half of the last century is
problematic, but there was certainly a trend towards increasing
consumption of vegetables, fruit, and cereals. Importantly, fruit and
vegetables, unlike other foods, were not rationed during the second
world war, resulting in a general improvement in quality of diet across
the social spectrum.17-19 That such changes may have
contributed to a progressively more favourable blood pressure profile
is supported by an American dietary trial in which there were
substantial declines in blood pressure in people assigned diets rich in
fruit and vegetables compared with controls on a more typical American
diet.20
Most studies have reported that birth weight is inversely
associated with subsequent blood pressure.21 However, even
if the increase in birth weight in the United Kingdom since at least the 1970s had been occurring throughout the last century the increment is likely to have been modest, and certainly no more than 550 g in
Scotland over the century (Information and Statistics Division, Common
Services Agency, Scotland: unpublished SMR2 data).
22 23
Since it has been estimated that a 1000 g rise in birth weight is
required for a 2 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure in people at
age 50,21 any upward trend in birth weight in the current cohort could not explain the large declines in blood pressure seen.
Finally, while it seems that postnatal growth has a role in determining
later blood pressure this is poorly understood and findings are
conflicting.24-26
Conclusion
The substantial declines in blood pressure occurring in young
adults between 30 and 50 years ago in the United Kingdom may have had
their origin in early life and may explain some of the decline in rates
of cardiovascular disease over the past century.
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Acknowledgments |
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We thank Alan Kerr, Christine Hamilton, and Heather Learmonth for entering the data and Jonathon Sterne for advice on statistical analyses.
Contributors: PMcC, GDS, and JMcE discovered the original data and designed the study. PMcC carried out the analyses and drafted the paper. GDS, MO, and JMcE commented critically on subsequent drafts. PMcC will act as guarantor.
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Footnotes |
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Funding: Chest, Heart and Stroke, Scotland; Stroke Association; NHS Management Executive; Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Research and Development Initiative.
Competing interests: None declared.
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References |
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| 1. | Charlton J, Murphy M. The health of adult Britain 1841-1994. London: Stationery Office, 1997. |
| 2. |
Bonita R, Stewart A, Beaglehole R.
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Appel LJ, Moore TJ, Obarzanek E, Vollmer WM, Svetkey LP, Sacks FM, et al.
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(Accepted 23 January 2001)
Bruce Neal Institute for International Health,
University of Sydney, PO Box 576, Newtown, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia
bneal{at}med.usyd.edu.au
The level of blood pressure is a well established
determinant of the risks of premature cardiovascular
disease,1 and treatments to lower blood pressure have been
shown to reduce these risks.2 Over the past 50 years
efforts to prevent diseases related to blood pressure have concentrated
primarily on drug based interventions among people with hypertension or
a history of cardiovascular disease. However, blood pressure seems to
be an important determinant of the risk of cardiovascular disease
across the entire population,1 and it seems that even
small population-wide reductions in blood pressure could prevent as
many cardiovascular events as targeted clinical
approaches.3 Unfortunately, effective methods for bringing
about population-wide reductions in blood pressure are neither well
established nor widely implemented.
McCarron et al provide strong evidence of decreases in mean blood
pressure levels over time among students at Glasgow University between
1948 and 1968. The observed reductions are substantial and seem to be
independent of any specific effort to modify blood pressure levels. The
reasons for the observed changes in the blood pressure levels remain
somewhat uncertain but seem likely to be a consequence of
population-wide changes in the intake of dietary determinants of blood
pressure, such as salt, fruit, and vegetables. Irrespective of the
explanation, such a fall in blood pressure would be expected to produce
a substantial reduction in the rate of premature cardiovascular
disease. Data from a number of populations worldwide provide evidence
of qualitatively similar changes in blood pressure that are likely to
explain a non-trivial part of the reduction in mortality from stroke
and other cardiovascular diseases reported by several countries over
the past few decades.4
If the reasons for the observed falls in blood pressure could be
reliably determined this would facilitate the development of new
strategies for the prevention of diseases related to blood pressure.
Effective new preventive strategies aimed at broad population groups
would be important in the United Kingdom as a whole but might be most
relevant to economically disadvantaged people, for whom changes in
cardiovascular mortality have not been favourable.5 However, possibly the greatest importance of such information would be
for lower income countries in other parts of the world. These countries
have the greatest burden of diseases related to blood pressure and over
the next few decades will experience the greatest increases in such
diseases.6
The work of McCarron et al has provided clear evidence that
substantial changes in blood pressure levels can occur, and both these
and other data suggest that such changes can occur in broad population
groups. New epidemiological studies that provide reliable information
about the most likely causes of these changes, and new large scale
randomised trials that identify effective means of changing population
levels of blood pressure, are needed. To have the greatest impact on
the global burden of cardiovascular disease, however, the data from
such studies must be directly applicable to the social, cultural, and
economic circumstances of the less affluent sections of the global community.
Competing interests: None declared.
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Acknowledgments
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References
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MacMahon S, Peto R, Cutler J, Collins R, Sorlie P, Neaton J, et al.
Blood pressure, stroke, and coronary heart disease. Part 1. Prolonged differences in blood pressure: prospective observational studies corrected for the regression dilution bias.
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Rodgers A, Lawes C, MacMahon S.
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Bonita R, Stewart A, Beaglehole R.
International trends in stroke mortality: 1970-1985.
Stroke
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Marmot M, Adelstein A, Robinson N, Rose G.
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Murray CJL, Lopez AD.
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In:
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Geneva: World Health Organization, 1996.
© BMJ 2001