• Incidence of cardiovascular events
  • Classification of risk factors
  • Hypertension: Systolic blood pressure

    • Incidence of cardiovascular events by gender and age.


    The incidence of cardiovascular events by age and sex as researched in the Framingham study. The incidence of cardiovascular disease is greater in men than in women; for coronary heart disease, women lag behind men in incidence by 10 years. The gap closes with advancing age. After women undergo menopause, risk of cardiovascular events promptly escalates threefold over that of women of the same age who have not undergone menopause. TIA = transient ischemic attack.

    Classification of risk factors of coronary heart disease.

    LIVING HABITS ATHEROGENIC TRAITS  
    Overeating of saturated fats, chlosterol, and calories Hypertension  
    Physical indolence  
    Cigarette habit  
    Type A behavior  
    Unrestrained weight gain  
    INNATE SUSCEPTIBILITY  
    PREDICTORS OF ACTIVE ATHEROGENESIS Genetic predispostion to dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes  
    Elevated fibrinogen and leukocytosis Strong family history of premature cardiovascular disease  

    Classification of risk factors of coronary heart disease. Regardless of age or sex, some persons are clearly more vulnerable than others. Predisposing factors have been identified and have come to be known as risk factors. Such factors are classified into living habits, atherogenic traits, and innate susceptibility, all of which can lead to compromised arterial circulation.

    Hypertension: Systolic blood pressure in men peaks at middle age.

    (It increases in women at least to the age of 80 years.)

    CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS ACCORDING TO HYPERTENSIVE STATUS, GENDER, AND AGE  
    WOMEN, n MEN, n
    Age, y 45-54 55-64 65-74 45-54 55-64 65-74  
    VARIABLE  
    Hypertensive status  
    Normal (< 140/90 mm Hg) 27,327 63,556 69,720 82,956 143,926 106,533  
    Hypertensive (>160/95 mm Hg) 98,174 246,930 288,609 227,646 405,021 317,730
    Events attributable to hypertension 70,847 183,374 218,889 144,690 261,095 211,197  
               

    Systolic blood pressure in men peaks at middle age, whereas it increases in women at least to the age of 80 years. The numbers of all cardiovascular events comparing normotensive status with hypertensive status by gender and age, based on Framingham data extrapolated to the white US population between the ages of 45 and 74 years, is shown. Cardiovascular events in women attributable to hypertension increased with increasing age in the Framingham cohort. The absolute number of cardiovascular complications attributable to hypertension may be greater for women than men by 65 to 74 years of age. Cardiovascular disease death rates in women in the Lipid Research Clinics Follow-up Study also increased progressively with quartiles of both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.Forty-five percent of US women in the 45- to 64-year age group have hypertension, with the percentage rising to 71% after age 65 years. The black-to-white ratio discrepancy in the prevalence of hypertension is more pronounced for women than for men.

     

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