title: Long-term changes in body weight are associated with changes in blood pressure levels.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hypertension and obesity are highly prevalent in Western societies. We investigated the associations of changes in body weight with changes in blood pressure and with incident hypertension, incident cardiovascular events, or incident normalization of blood pressure in patients who were hypertensive at baseline, over a 5-year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data of men and women aged 20-81 years of the Study of Health in Pomerania were used. Changes in body weight were related to changes in blood pressure by linear regression (n = 1875) adjusted for cofounders. Incident hypertension, incident cardiovascular events, or incident blood pressure normalization in patients who were hypertensive at baseline were investigated using Poisson regression (n = 3280) models. A change of 1 kg in body weight was positively associated with a change of 0.45 mm Hg (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34-0.55 mm Hg) in systolic blood pressure, 0.32 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.25-0.38 mm Hg) in diastolic blood pressure, and 0.36 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.29-0.43 mm Hg) in mean arterial pressure (all p-values <0.001). A 5% weight loss reduced the relative risk (RR) of incident hypertension (RRs 0.84 (95% CI: 0.79-0.89)) and incident cardiovascular events (RRs 0.81 (95% CI: 0.68-0.98)) and increased the chance of incident blood pressure normalization in patients who were hypertensive at baseline by 15% (95% CI: 7-23%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Absolute and relative changes in body weight are positively associated with changes in blood pressure levels and also affect the risk of cardiovascular events.
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. Electronic address: marcello.markus@uni-greifswald.de.
authors.forename: M R P
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Markus
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ittermann
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Baumeister
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Troitzsch
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schipf
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lorbeer
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aumannn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany; DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wallaschofski
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine B, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany; DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dörr
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rettig
authors.affiliation: Department Study of Health in Pomerania/Clinical-Epidemiological Research, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany; DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Völzke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D015994:Incidence; D008019:Life Style; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D055105:Waist Circumference; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Blood pressure; Hypertension; Obesity; Population-based study; Risk factors; Weight