Approved Research
The sex difference in the target organ damage of blood pressure changes in different age.
Lay summary
The population of hypertension is large, accompanied by great harm and heavy economic burden all over the world. It is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which can damage the structure and function of important organs such as heart, brain, kidney, fundus and vessels, and eventually lead to functional failure of these organs. The incidence of hypertension increases with age. Studies found that women with hypertension have a better prognosis than men, regardless of race. A meta-analysis found that hypertensive women had a 23% lower risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD) than men. However, another meta-analysis indicated that for every 10mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure, the risk of cardiovascular disease in women was 1.1 times higher than that in men. These conclusions seem inconsistent. Surveys showed that the number of hypertensive males was higher than that of pre-menopausal females of the same age, and clinical observation also found that the average blood pressure level of young females was generally lower than that of males of the same age. With the increase of age, the average blood pressure of different genders would also increase to varying degrees (postmenopausal women's blood pressure increased faster than that of men's ). Many current clinical studies do not fully consider the lower basic blood pressure of female patients and the difference in blood pressure changes between different genders as they age. Therefore, this study aims to explore the gender differences in the effects of blood pressure changes on target organs with age using proportional hazards model, restricted cubic splines and mendelian randomization method. We expect the result of this study to shed light on whether there will be sex difference in the target organ damage of blood pressure changes in different age and to contribute to give different protective measures for hypertension patients of different genders in different age periods.