Public health aspects of blood pressure
Year: 2001
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Although the age-specific mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases (CVD)\\nare decreasing, CVD are still the number one cause of death in the Netherlands, with\\nyearly over 50,000 deaths from these diseases.1 The most important CVD are\\ncoronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). In 1999, CHD\\nconstituted 36% (n=18,304), and CVA 25% (n=12,501) of total CVD deaths in the\\nNetherlands.\\nOne of the major risk factors for CVD in general and for CVA in particular is\\nelevated blood pressure. Until recently, elevated blood pressure or hypertension\\nwas defined as a systolic blood presssure (SBP) of 160 mmHg or greater and/or a\\ndiastolic blood pressure (DBP) of 95 mmHg or greater3 In the Netherlands, the\\nprevalence of hypertension according to this definition was 9.2% in men and 7.1% in\\nwomen aged 20-59 years from 1993 to 1995. The prevalence of hypertension\\nincreases with age. Among Dutch men and women aged 55 years and over living in\\nRotterdam, 22.6% respectively 27.1% had systolic or diastolic blood pressure levels\\nof 160/95 mmHg from 1990 to 19934 Recently the WHO classification was revised\\nand the threshold for hypertension was lowered to 140/90 mmHg. However every\\nthreshold is arbitrary, as results from most large observational studies have\\ndemonstrated that there is no clear threshold below which a lower level of blood\\npressure is not associated with a lower risk of CHD or CVA.
Author: Peggy van den Hoogen
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2126437955