BP variability, future CVD incidence may worsen in the winter
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Day-by-day BP variability measured by home BP monitoring and CVD event risks may worsen during the winter season, according to findings published in Hypertension.
“Our findings indicate that, compared to other seasons, day-by-day home BP variability measured in winter is more strongly associated with future CVD incidence,” Keisuke Narita, MD, assistant professor for the division of cardiovascular medicine, department of internal medicine at Jichi Medical University, Japan, and colleagues wrote.
In a post hoc analysis, Narita and colleagues observed the dataset of the Japan Morning Surge-Home Blood Pressure (J-HOP) study, in which 4,231 participants (mean age, 65 years; 46.7% men) conducted home BP measurements in the morning and evening in the spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Compared with the summer, systolic BP (standard deviation [SD] = 0.303; 95% CI, 0.083-0.523; P = .007), coefficient of variation (SD = 0.23; 95% CI, 0.068-0.392; P = .005) and average real variability (SD = 0.346; 95% CI, 0.094-0.598; P = .007) were related to seasonal factors of winter. There was no significant relationship for systolic BP and coefficient of variation when environmental factors were included.
Of 267 CVD events, 75 occurred in the winter. After adjusting for host confounding and environmental factors, systolic BP (HR = 1.26; 95% CI, 1.02-1.54; P = .031), coefficient of variation (HR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02-1.52; P = .031) and average real variability (HR = 1.44; 95% CI, 1.17-1.77; P < .001) were associated with CVD event risk.
“Our present study demonstrated that the association of day-by-day home BP variability with the future CVD incidence was significant when measured in winter, but not when measured in the other seasons,” Narita and colleagues wrote. “From our findings, the pathological significance of day-by-day home BP variability might be greater in winter compared to other seasons.”
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