Hypertension
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Few prospective studies have examined associations between major cardiovascular risk factors and occurrence of abdominal aortic aneurysm; findings from cross-sectional studies are inconsistent. This long-term population-based study assessed relationships of major risk factors in middle-age to clinical nonfatal plus fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm in older-age in the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry cohort--10 574 men and 8700 women baseline ages 40 to 64 years screened for risk factors in 1967-1973 at workplaces. With average follow-up of 30 years and clinical cases identified from Medicare records and death certificates, risk factor relationships to abdominal aortic aneurysm occurrence were assessed by Cox regression. ⋯ Most findings were qualitatively similar for men and women. In multivariate analyses (5 models), hazard ratios for abdominal aortic aneurysm were significantly greater for men than women (> or =1.97), with older age (> or =1.63/5 years), higher serum cholesterol (> or =1.30/40.0 mg/dL), cigarettes/d (> or =2.43/20 cigarettes), past smoking (> or =1.41), height (> or =1.17/7 cm), evidence of adverse blood pressure (hazard ratio 1.10/20 mm Hg higher systolic pressure, 1.12 to 1.14/12 mm Hg higher diastolic pressure, 1.87 with history of treated hypertension). It is concluded that major cardiovascular risk factors--serum cholesterol, smoking, and blood pressure--in middle age relate significantly to risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm in persons surviving into older age.