Prevalence of isolated systolic hypertension in Alameda County, California.
Clinical research has suggested that isolated systolic hypertension differs from essential hypertension in terms of pathophysiological change. Yet little is known of the descriptive epidemiology of isolated systolic hypertension. This paper examines the prevalence of isolated systolic hypertension in biracial Alameda County, California. Baseline survey data from the Alameda County Hypertension Project (1978) were used to calculate age and sex percentage of prevalence by race. This condition was rare below age 40, but the percentage of prevalence increased with age. Defining isolated systolic hypertension as diastolic blood pressure less than 90 and systolic blood pressure greater than 160, age-adjusted prevalence was 1.15, 1.31, 1.01, and 2.47 for white men, black men, white women, and black women, respectively. Comparison with the prevalence estimates of isolated systolic hypertension from biracial, rural Evans County, Georgia, indicated that the Alameda County prevalence was significantly lower for white women (p less than .01), black women (p less than .03), and total population (p less than .01). We posit that the larger number of people under care for essential hypertension is responsible for the lower occurrence of pure, isolated systolic hypertension in Alameda County. The results suggest the importance of female family members in the acceptance and promulgation of health promotion efforts for both essential and isolated systolic hypertension at the population level.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002140:California; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American