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Twenty-four hour blood pressure monitoring in group of patients of elderly and middle age with hypertension has been carried out. Features of daily average parameters have been studied. The hypertension in elderly patients shows an increase in variability of blood pressure and insufficient decrease in blood pressure at night that leads to development of cardiovascular complications.

The comparative analysis of accompanying diseases depending on the form of hypertension in elderly has been carried out. Prevalence of the isolated systolic or systolo-diastolic essential hypertension in elderly has been studied. The analysis of data has shown that systole-diastolic hypertension in patients is more often accompanied with diseases of heart, and in patients with isolated systolic hypertension is more often accompanied with cerebrovascular diseases. Both forms of a hypertension in elderly persons are adverse by the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebral complications.

Conducting a program on prophylaxis of arterial hypertension among automobile transport workers, the researchers revealed higher blood pressure among 22.6% of the examines. Prophylactic measures during 5 years induced decrease in prevalence of arterial hypertension from 23.6% to 13.7% among the exposed group members, whereas the reference group members demonstrated increase of the parameter from 21.5% to 34.3%. Prophylaxis of arterial hypertension among drivers should be based on non-pharmacologic methods, if inevitable, the drug therapy should be selected under control of psychophysiologic tests.

An epidemiological examination of 4323 motor transport workers made according to the program of the All-Union Cardiology Research Center, USSR AMS, revealed high arterial pressure (AP) in 22.6% of cases. The knowledge of hypertension was found to be low (34%) as was the coverage with hypotensive treatment (7.1%) and the efficacy of the latter one (1.8%). The follow-up studies (for 5 years) demonstrated the efficacy of non-medicamentous and medicamentous AP control exercised in motor transport workers. It was proved that in the principle AP might adequately be decreased and maintained for a long time at the safe level in the overwhelming majority of subjects with AP.

Cross-sectional studies covered 2562 males (a urban population), 580 miners, 1126 agricultural drivers, 682 rural habitants and 4323 urban drivers. The mean blood pressures were basically identical in males of various occupations and age, except for urban and rural drivers aged 20-29 and 40-49 years who had significantly lower mean systolic blood pressures than those from the other groups under study. All the males showed elevation in systolic and diastolic blood pressures with age; the differences in blood pressures were insignificant only in rural drivers aged 30-39 and 40-49 years and miners aged 40-49 and 50-59 years. The incidence of arterial hypertension increased with age: from 3.2 to 7.7% in 20-29-year-old males to 34.2-37.2% in 50-59-year olds. Low (less that 50%) awareness of hypertension was identified in hypertensives. A prospective 5-year follow-up and implementation of prophylactic measures at the urban motor enterprises positively affected the incidence of hypertension and the level of hypertension awareness, and morbidity rates.

The difficulties in hypotensive treatment of arterial hypertension (AH) in drivers encouraged the search for effective methods of correction of elevated arterial pressure (AP). During 5 years a group of 631 drivers with different levels of elevated AP was examined. For their treatment a complex of non-pharmacological methods was proposed, i.e., exercise therapy, preshift gymnastics, psychoemotional relief, autotraining, punctate massage, electric sleep, balneotherapy, decoction of sedative and plant diuretics. The dynamics of mean indices of diastolic pressure and high efficiency of using non-pharmacological methods for treating AH in drivers were demonstrated. The absence of adverse and undesirable effects of non-pharmacological AH-control methods enabled one to regard them as an effective means of treatment of the drivers with the initial AH stages.