High blood pressure predicts diabetes in women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who have high blood pressure (BP) or increasing BP are up to three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than women with low blood pressure, new research suggests. This effect is independent of excess weight and other conditions that are known to predispose people to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The findings stem from a 10-year follow up of 38,172 women who were free of heart disease or diabetes at the start of the study in 1993.

The women were divided into four groups: those with optimal BP (below 120 mmHg systolic, 75 mmHg diastolic); those with normal BP (120-129 mmHg systolic, 75-84 mmHg diastolic); those with high-normal BP (130-139 mmHg systolic, 85-89 diastolic); and those with established high BP (at least 140 mmHg systolic, 90 mmHg diastolic, and/or self-reported history of high BP or treatment for the condition).

A total of 1,672 women developed type 2 diabetes during follow up and most of them (9.4 percent) were in the group with established high BP. Moreover, 5.7 percent of women who developed type 2 diabetes were in the high-normal BP group.

After adjusting for various factors such as age, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol use, body weight, exercise, and family history of diabetes, women with high BP had a three-fold increased risk of developing diabetes compared with women with optimal BP, Dr. David from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and colleagues found.

Women who had an increase in BP during the study also had an increased risk of developing diabetes. Women whose BP rose but who remained within the range of normal BP had an increased risk of 26 percent compared to women who had stable or decreasing BP. Women who progressed to hypertension had a 64 percent increased risk.

This study, Conen and colleagues conclude, "provides strong evidence" that blood pressure and blood pressure progression are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

SOURCE: European Heart Journal, December 2007.