Skip Navigation


European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on March 18, 2009
European Heart Journal 2009 30(11):1378-1384; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp072
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
30/11/1378    most recent
ehp072v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in EHJ
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Conen, D.
Right arrow Articles by Albert, M. A.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Conen, D.
Right arrow Articles by Albert, M. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Socioeconomic status, blood pressure progression, and incident hypertension in a prospective cohort of female health professionals

David Conen1,2,*, Robert J. Glynn1, Paul M. Ridker1,3, Julie E. Buring1 and Michelle A. Albert1,3

1 Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
2 Cardiology Division, University Hospital, Petersgraben 4, 4031 Basel, Switzerland
3 Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Received 9 September 2008; revised 17 January 2009; accepted 30 January 2009; online publish-ahead-of-print 18 March 2009.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +41 61 265 25 25, Fax: +41 61 265 45 98, Email: conend{at}uhbs.ch

See page 1305 for the editorial comment on this article (doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp131)

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the association between socioeconomic status, blood pressure (BP) progression, and incident hypertension.

Methods and results: We included 27 207 female health professionals free of hypertension and cardiovascular disease at baseline. Participants were classified into five education and six income categories. The main outcome variables were BP progression at 48 months of follow-up and incident hypertension during the entire study period. At 48 months, 48.1% of women had BP progression. The multivariable adjusted relative risks [95% confidence intervals (CIs)] for BP progression were 1.0 (referent), 0.96 (0.92–1.00), 0.92 (0.88–0.96), 0.90 (0.85–0.94), and 0.84 (0.78–0.91) (P for trend <0.0001) across increasing education categories and 1.0 (referent), 1.01 (0.94–1.08), 0.99 (0.93–1.06), 0.97 (0.91–1.04), 0.96 (0.90–1.03), and 0.89 (0.83–0.96) across increasing income categories (P for trend = 0.0001). During a median follow-up of 9.8 years, 8248 cases of incident hypertension occurred. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) were 1.0 (referent), 0.92 (0.86–0.99), 0.85 (0.79–0.92), 0.87 (0.80–0.94), and 0.74 (0.65–0.84) (P for trend <0.0001) across increasing education categories and 1.0 (referent), 1.07 (0.95–1.21), 1.07 (0.95–1.20), 1.06 (0.94–1.18), 1.04 (0.93–1.16), and 0.93 (0.82–1.06) (P for trend 0.08) across increasing income categories. In joint analyses, education but not income remained associated with BP progression and incident hypertension.

Conclusion: Socioeconomic status, as determined by education but not by income, is a strong independent predictor of BP progression and incident hypertension in women.

Key Words: Blood pressure • Hypertension • Socioeconomic status • Education • Income


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?

Related articles in EHJ:

Adverse social factors can predict hypertension—but how?
Peter M. Nilsson
EHJ 2009 30: 1305-1306. [Extract] [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Eur Heart JHome page
P. M. Nilsson
Adverse social factors can predict hypertension--but how?
Eur. Heart J., June 1, 2009; 30(11): 1305 - 1306.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.