Moderately high blood pressure at 50 linked to higher dementia risk

50-year-olds who have blood pressure that is higher than normal but still below the threshold commonly used when deciding to treat the condition, are at increased risk of developing dementia in later life, finds a new study led by UCL and French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris (INSERM) researchers. This increased risk was seen even when the study participants did not have other heart or blood vessel-related problems, according to the research, part of the long-running UCL-based Whitehall II study of over 10,000 civil servants, published today in the European Heart Journal . Although there have been previous studies that have linked raised blood pressure in midlife to an increased risk of dementia in later life, the term 'midlife' has been poorly defined and ranged from 35 to 68 years. "Previous research has not been able to test the link between raised blood pressure and dementia directly by examining the timing in sufficient detail. In our paper we were able to examine the association at age 50, 60 and 70, and we found different patterns of association. This will have important implications for policy guidelines, which currently only use the generic term 'midlife'," said the first author of the paper, Dr Jessica Abell (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health and INSERM). Participants in the Whitehall II study, who were aged between 35-55 in 1985, had their blood pressure measured in 1985, 1991, 1997 and 2003.