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Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women: Brief Review of the Literature and Future Research Directions

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Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women

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Abstract

Over 50 million Americans aged 6 and older have hypertension, defined as a blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or higher [49]. Prevalence is higher in blacks than in whites and hypertension is especially prevalent among the less educated and among lower socioeconomic groups in both races. High blood pressure prevalence increases markedly with age reaching 52.6% among 55- to 64-year-old American women and 67.5% among those over age 65 [1]. Prevalence rates of hypertension (BP>159/94) reported by the WHO MONICA Project among 35- to 64-year-old women in Europe vary widely, as shown in Fig. 1. Hypertension is more common in men than in women in early adulthood and middle age; the reverse is true in the oldest age groups [49] (Fig. 2). Although cross-sectional studies in women find higher blood pressure levels among those who are postmenopausal [46, 56], longitudinal studies have not shown a significant rise in blood pressure at the time of menopause [18, 33, 54]. Improved and more widely applied treatment of hypertension in the United States since the early 1970s has been paralleled by an approximately 40% decrease in age-adjusted mortality rates from coronary heart disease and a decline of more than 50% in age-adjusted mortality rates from stroke in black and white women and men [49].

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Authors
  1. Vera Bittner
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  2. Suzanne Oparil
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine 1, Hôpital Broussais, F-75674, Paris Cedex 14, France

    Michel Emile Safar M.D. (Professor of Therapeutics) (Professor of Therapeutics)

  2. Hypertension Research Center, Hôpital Broussais, F-75674, Paris Cedex 14, France

    Michel Emile Safar M.D. (Professor of Therapeutics) (Professor of Therapeutics)

  3. Medical School, University of Cologne, D-50931, Cologne, Germany

    Michael Stimpel M.D. (Assistant Professor of Medicine) (Assistant Professor of Medicine)

  4. Department of Clinical Research, Schwarz Pharma AG, D-40789, Monheim, Germany

    Michael Stimpel M.D. (Assistant Professor of Medicine) (Assistant Professor of Medicine)

  5. Centro die Fisiologia, Clinica e Ipertensione, Policlinico Via F. Sforza 35, I-20122, Milano, Italy

    Alberto Zanchetti M.D. (Professor of Medicine) (Professor of Medicine)

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bittner, V., Oparil, S. (1994). Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women: Brief Review of the Literature and Future Research Directions. In: Safar, M.E., Stimpel, M., Zanchetti, A. (eds) Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79077-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79077-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58144-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79077-5

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