{"id":29075,"date":"2017-04-06T10:18:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T08:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/?p=29075"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:49:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:49:44","slug":"elevated-blood-pressure-not-a-high-mortality-risk-for-elderly-with-weak-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/elevated-blood-pressure-not-a-high-mortality-risk-for-elderly-with-weak-grip\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevated blood pressure not a high mortality risk for elderly with weak grip"},"content":{"rendered":"

A study of nearly 7,500 Americans age 65 or older suggests that elevated blood pressure is not related to high mortality risk among people in that age group with weak grip strength.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n\"Health<\/p>\n

Elevated blood pressure is not related to high mortality risk among people in that age group with weak grip strength<\/h2>\n

The new researchs by Oregon State University<\/strong> findings suggest that treating high blood pressure in older patients should not follow a one-size-fits-all approach. When an older person is still functioning at a high level physically, high blood pressure indicates mortality risk; however, when the person is not physically robust, high blood pressure is not a marker for mortality risk.<\/p>\n

\"Health\u201cIf people are very frail, they typically don\u2019t respond well to anti-hypertensive therapy and they are not benefiting from having a low blood pressure,\u201d<\/em> said lead author Chenkai Wu<\/strong>, a graduate student in OSU\u2019s College of Public Health and Human Sciences<\/a>. \u201cThe research is basically saying older adults are not one single group, they\u2019re very different in terms of their health status, and drugs may not have the same benefits for everyone. This is consistent with the idea of precision medicine, where you don\u2019t just look at age, you look at other things like functional status.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people\u2019s diastolic blood pressure goes down with age<\/h2>\n

Systolic blood pressure, though, tends to rise, and high blood pressure \u2013 hypertension \u2013 can put extra strain on the heart and arteries, causing greater risk of heart attack and stroke.<\/p>\n

But as Wu\u2019s research suggests, an elderly patient\u2019s level of physical functionality should be considered in determining whether anti-hypertensive therapy is warranted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grip strength, easily measured by an inexpensive device known as a dynamometer, is a common way to gauge functionality in the elderly.<\/p>\n

Elevated systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure are correlated<\/h2>\n

Wu looked at data from 7,492 people age 65 or older who had taken part in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Six years after being surveyed, 25 percent of those people had died.<\/p>\n

The study showed that elevated systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure correlated with a substantially higher likelihood of dying for those with normal grip strength<\/strong>, which is 26 kilograms or more for men and 16 kilograms or more for women.<\/p>\n

\"Research\u201cWe did three analyses,\u201d<\/em> Wu said. \u201cOne was to look at gait speed to separate people into two groups, normal and slow. The second part was grip strength \u2013 weak grip and normal grip. Third, we looked at the combinations, and the strongest inverse association between high blood pressure and mortality was for slow walkers with weak grip strength.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBoth measures are markers of functional status, a multidimensional concept. Considering both might be better than considering each measure alone for identifying subgroups of elders for whom high blood pressure is potentially beneficial.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

An inverse association between high blood pressure and mortality<\/h2>\n

In addition to the connection with weak grip strength, Wu said there was a \u201cvery clear\u201d inverse association between high blood pressure and mortality among those who weren\u2019t physically able to finish the gait-speed test in the latest study<\/strong>, measured over a 98.5-inch walk: among those who couldn\u2019t walk a little over 8 feet, high blood pressure was associated with less mortality risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a small group but not negligible \u2013 6 percent \u2013 of people who were not able to complete the test,\u201d he said. \u201cCompared to grip strength, it\u2019s a harder test to complete, an integration of a lot of physiological systems: balance, vision, lower-extremity muscle strength, etc.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/em><\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study of nearly 7,500 Americans age 65 or older suggests that elevated blood pressure is not related to high mortality risk among people in that age group with weak grip strength.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":29157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3262,27,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","category-etudes"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health.jpg",748,312,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health-300x125.jpg",300,125,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health.jpg",748,312,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health.jpg",748,312,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health.jpg",748,312,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Research-Health.jpg",748,312,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"SilverEconomy","author_link":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/author\/enredac26\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A study of nearly 7,500 Americans age 65 or older suggests that elevated blood pressure is not related to high mortality risk among people in that age group with weak grip strength.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48468,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29075\/revisions\/48468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}