[Cardiovascular mortality attributable to high blood pressure in Spanish population over 50].

Background and Objective: Cardiovascular mortality attributable to high blood pressure in Spain is not available at present.
Patients and Method: Population attributable risk and number of cardiovascular deaths attributable to high systolic blood pressure (> or = 120 mmHg) were estimated for the Spanish population aged 50-89 years, according to classical formulae. Relative risk data were drawn from the Prospective Studies Collaboration, meta-analysis of 61 studies on blood pressure and mortality, with data on one million subjects (30,000 from South Europe) with no prior vascular disease. Blood pressure prevalence was drawn from 2 nationwide surveys in Spain, for subjects aged 50-59 years and 60-89 years old, respectively. Cardiovascular deaths occurred in Spain were drawn from official statistics (year 2004).
Results: The number of annual cardiovascular deaths attributable to high blood pressure was 44,401, which represents 54% of the carFdiovascular deaths occurred in people over 50 years: 17,312 for ischemic heart disease, 15,599 for stroke, and 11,490 for other cardiovascular diseases. The highest number of attributable deaths lie in hypertension grade 1 and 2 (32,638) and in those over 70 years (36,345). Normal and high-normal blood pressure accounted for 6% of all attributable cardiovascular deaths.
Conclusions: One in 2 cardiovascular deaths occurred annually in Spanish individuals over 50 years are attributable to high blood pressure, 90% of them are attributable to hypertension.