Age dependency of peripheral and central systolic blood pressures: cross-sectional and longitudinal observations in a Chinese population

Few studies have described the age-related changes in both peripheral and central systolic blood pressures (SBPs) in populations. We addressed this issue in 1066 women and 978 men, all untreated (mean age, 45.1 years; 27.2% hypertensive) and randomly selected from a Chinese population, of whom 369 and 330 underwent a repeat examination after 3.6 years (median). In cross-sectional analyses, central SBP increased more with age than peripheral SBP in women below age 50 (1.21 vs. 1.01 mm Hg per year; P= 89.7% of the explained variance in peripheral and central SBPs. In longitudinal analyses, the annual percentage increases from baseline to follow-up in peripheral and central SBP were similar (P >= 0.76) in both women (2.14% vs. 2.16% per year) and men (1.33% vs. 1.34 % per year; P-values for sex difference