Healthy lifestyle choices decreased risk for hypertension

Four major cardiovascular disease-related lifestyle behaviors predicted a future increase in blood pressure and the development of hypertension, and a need for antihypertensive drug therapy, according to data from a cohort study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich.

Pekka Jousilahti, MD, research professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, and colleagues measured CVD-related lifestyle traits such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, obesity and consumption of vegetables in a large prospective, population-based cohort study of 9,637 Finnish men and 11,430 women aged 25 to 74 years who did not have hypertension at baseline (1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2002).

They used the Social Insurance Institution of Finland registry to collect hypertension data and a self-administered questionnaire on medical history and health-related lifestyle traits. These were defined as not smoking; consuming less than 50 g of alcohol per week; participation in leisure time physical activity at least three times per week; daily consumption of vegetables; and normal weight (BMI <25). Smoking was removed from the final analysis because it was not associated with the development of hypertension, according to researchers.

During the 16-year follow-up period, researchers discovered that 709 men and 890 women developed hypertension.

Adherence to at least one healthy behavior was associated with decreased risk for hypertension, and those who adhered to all four had the lowest risk, researchers said. Among men, HRs for adherence to one, two, three and all four healthy behaviors were 0.74 (95% CI, 0.65-0.84), 0.51 (95% CI, 0.45-0.58), 0.34 (95% CI, 0.28-0.41) and 0.33 (95% CI, 0.24-0.46). Similarly, among women, HRs for adherence to one, two, three or all four behaviors were 0.89 (95% CI, 0.64-1.22), 0.68 (95% CI, 0.49-0.93), 0.41 (95% CI, 0.3-0.57) and 0.37 (95% CI, 0.25-0.55).

Further adjustments of baseline systolic BP and exclusion of the patients who had a baseline systolic BP ≥160 mm Hg or a baseline diastolic BP ≥95 mm Hg did not change the results.

“The risk of hypertension was only one-third among those having all four healthy lifestyle factors compared to those having none,” Jousilahti said in a press release. “Even having one to three healthy lifestyle factors reduced the risk of hypertension remarkably. For example, having two healthy lifestyle factors reduced the risk of hypertension by nearly 50% in men and by more than 30% in women.”

Jousilahti said the research shows that men and women should take steps toward healthier lifestyles to reduce their risk for hypertension.

For more information:

Jousilahti P. #5224. Presented at: the European Society of Cardiology Congress; Aug. 25-29, 2012; Munich.

Disclosure: Dr. Jousilahti reports no relevant financial disclosures.