Intended for healthcare professionals

Research Article

Interrelation of age, obesity, cigarette smoking, and blood pressure in hypertensive patients.

Br Med J 1978; 1 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.6117.880 (Published 08 April 1978) Cite this as: Br Med J 1978;1:880
  1. D Ballantyne,
  2. B L Devine,
  3. R Fife

    Abstract

    The relations between age, obesity, cigarette smoking, and blood pressure were investigated in 637 men and 835 women who had attended the Glasgow Blood Pressure Clinic with untreated hypertension. In contrast to results of population surveys of mainly normotensive people no relation was found between cigarette consumption and either systolic or diastolic blood pressure. Moreover, contrary to results of epidemiological studies a relation between adiposity and blood pressure was found in only male non-smokers. Thus the relations established for largely normotensive populations do not apply to hypertensive patients.