Cigarette smoking is associated with increased diastolic blood pressure among Chinese nonagenarians/centenarians

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Cigarette smoking has been confirmed as a factor influencing arterial blood pressure. In the present study, we studied whether cigarette smoking habits were still associated with arterial blood pressure among Chinese nonagenarians/centenarians. METHODS: The present study analyzed data from a survey conducted on all residents aged 90 years or more in the DuJiangYan district (in total 2,311,709 inhabitants) in 2005. RESULTS: The individuals included in the statistical analysis were 216 men and 445 women. Individuals who were heavy smokers (76.62 ± 13.28 mmHg) had higher diastolic blood pressure, compared with medium and light smokers (72.33 ± 12.98 and 70.28 ± 10.31 mmHg) (F = 3.551, p = 0.030). There was a higher prevalence of diastolic hypertension (21.62% vs 5.75% and 7.14%, χ(2 =) 6.302, p = 0.043). Furthermore, there was a higher risk for diastolic hypertension in heavy smokers (OR = 3.886, 95% CI 1.241-12.161) (adjusted) compared with medium (OR = 1.475, 95% CI 0.599-3.360) and light smokers (1.00 reference). There was, however, no significant difference in systolic blood pressure or prevalence of systolic hypertension among the different smoking groups. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we found that among Chinese nonagenarians/centenarians, heavy smoking (current or former) could increase diastolic blood pressure and prevalence of diastolic hypertension, but was not associated with changes in systolic blood pressure.