| Summary: | The general conception is that blood pressure increases with age, but that diastolic blood pressure (DBP) starts decreasing in the elderly. There are, however, indications that systolic blood pressure (SBP) might also decline in advanced age, but further studies are needed to establish whether this is true. Midlife hypertension is an acknowledged risk factor for mortality and dementia. Some research has, however, suggested more complicated associations between blood pressure and these outcomes in old age, as low blood pressure has been linked to both increased mortality and increased risk of dementia. Research on this subject, especially in very old people (≥85 years of age), is still limited. The purpose of the present thesis was to investigate blood pressure epidemiology in old age and associations between blood pressure and mortality and cognition in very old people. Subjects were mainly derived from the Umeå 85+/GERDA (GErontological Regional DAtabase) study, a study on individuals aged 85 years, 90 years or ≥95 years carried out in northern Sweden and Finland in 2000-2007. For analysis of blood pressure change with age, data from this study were combined with data from the U70 study that was carried out in the city of Umeå, Sweden between 1981-1990 and included individuals aged 70-88 years. Investigations were performed during a home visit in the Umeå 85+/GERDA study and at a geriatric centre in the U70 study. SBP and DBP were measured in the supine position in both studies and pulse pressure (PP) was calculated as SBP-DBP. Main outcome variables were 4-year mortality, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, dementia and blood pressure change with age and over the years. Treatment with antihypertensive drugs was also considered. Blood pressure changes with age and time were investigated using 1133 blood pressure measurements from 705 individuals aged ≥70 years performed between 1981 and 2005. DBP continually decreased with increasing age, whereas SBP and PP increased up to age 74.5 and 80.6 years, ...
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