Prognostic significance of night-time, early morning, and daytime blood pressures on the risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality: The Ohasama Study

OBJECTIVE: To clarify whether high blood pressure (BP) at a particular time of day is associated with cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality risk. METHODS: Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality in 1360 individuals aged 40 years and older in Ohasama, Japan, was followed for an average of 10.6 years. We used 2-h moving averages of the BP (a total of 24 average BP measurements for two consecutive hours based on four BP readings taken every 30 min) to compare the predictive power of BP taken during a 24-h period given the same number of measurements. The associations between cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality risk and the 2-h moving averages of systolic blood pressure (2 h-SBP) recorded over 24 h were analysed using a Cox proportional hazards model after adjusting for possible confounding factors. RESULTS: The total cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality risk was significantly associated with elevated 2 h-SBP recorded during the night and early morning periods. Haemorrhagic stroke mortality was significantly associated with elevated daytime 2 h-SBP. Cerebral infarction mortality and heart disease mortality were significantly associated with elevated night-time 2 h-SBP. CONCLUSION: High BP at different times of day were associated with different subtypes of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality risk.