Men Inherit High Risk of Hypertension Throughout
Life if Either Parent has It
Early-onset high blood in both parents indicates a
6.2-fold higher risk
March 24, 2008 – High blood pressure tends to
cluster in families, according to a new study, which has found that men
with one or two parents with hypertension apparently have a
significantly increased risk of elevated blood pressure throughout their
adult lives.
Researchers estimate that between 35 percent and 65
percent of high blood pressure is heritable according to a report in the
March 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives
journals.
Nae-Yuh Wang, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, assessed hypertension in 1,160 men who
first filled out study questionnaires in 1947, when they were medical
students.
At that time, the participants underwent medical
examinations and reported their medical history, health habits and
dietary habits. Each year for 54 years of follow-up, they completed
annual questionnaires regarding their blood pressure and the diagnosis
and treatment of hypertension in themselves and their parents.
At the beginning of the study, 264 (23 percent) of
the medical students reported at least one parent with hypertension,
including 20 with both parents who had hypertension.
During follow-up, 583 new cases of parental
hypertension occurred, so that 701 (60 percent) of the group had at
least one parent with high blood pressure and 166 (14 percent) had two.
Men with one or two parents with hypertension had
higher average systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood
pressure at the beginning of the study and were also more likely to
develop hypertension at some point during adulthood than those whose
parents never developed hypertension.
"Men with both parents with hypertension or men
with one parent who was hypertensive before the age of 55 years had a
much higher risk of developing hypertension, especially at a younger
age," the authors write.
Early-onset hypertension in both parents was
associated with a 6.2-fold higher risk of hypertension at any point in
adulthood and a 20-fold higher risk of developing hypertension by age
35.
"Our findings emphasize the importance of asking
patients about parental hypertension to identify those who are at high
risk of developing hypertension, especially at a young age, for both
population-based and individual-level interventions," the authors
conclude.
"They also underscore the importance of primary
prevention and blood-pressure monitoring early in life in men with
parental hypertension, especially those who have a parent with
early-onset hypertension."
Editor's Note: This work was supported in part by
grants from the National Institutes of Health.
March 24, 2008 – High blood pressure tends to
cluster in families, according to a new study, which has found that men
with one or two parents with hypertension apparently have a
significantly increased risk of elevated blood pressure throughout their
adult lives.