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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffRisk factors for prehypertension include:
- Being overweight or obese. A primary risk factor is being overweight. The greater your body mass, the more blood you need to supply oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. As the volume of blood circulated through your blood vessels increases, so does the force on your artery walls.
- Age. Younger adults are more likely to have prehypertension than are older adults — probably because most older adults have progressed to high blood pressure.
- Sex. Prehypertension is more common in men than in women.
- Family history of high blood pressure. High blood pressure tends to run in families. If a first-degree relative, such as a parent or sibling, has high blood pressure, you're more likely to develop the condition.
- Sedentary lifestyle. Not exercising can lead to the development of coronary artery disease, which in turn can increase your blood pressure.
- Diet high in sodium or low in potassium. Sodium and potassium are two key nutrients in the way your body regulates your blood pressure. If you have too much sodium or too little potassium in your diet, you're more likely to have high blood pressure.
- Tobacco use. Smoking cigarettes, chewing tobacco or even being around other people who are smoking (secondhand smoke) can increase your blood pressure.
- Excessive alcohol use. Drinking more than two drinks a day if you're a man younger than 65, or more than one drink a day if you're a woman or a man older than age 65 can increase your blood pressure.
Certain chronic conditions — including high cholesterol, diabetes and sleep apnea — may increase the risk of prehypertension as well.
References
- What are high blood pressure and prehypertension? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/hbp/whathbp.htm. Accessed Aug. 8, 2012.
- Chobanian AV, et al. The seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension. 2003;42:1206.
- Hernandez J, et al. Prehypertension: A literature-documented public health problem. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. 2012;24:3.
- Thompson AM, et al. Antihypertensive treatment and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease events among persons without hypertension. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2011;305:913.
- Karanja N, et al. Acceptability of sodium-reduced research diets, including the dietary approaches to stop hypertension diet, among adults with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2007;107:1530.
- Maruthur NM, et al. Lifestyle interventions reduce coronary heart disease risk: Results from the PREMIER trial. Circulation. 2009;119:2026.
- Pimenta E, et al. Prehypertension: Epidemiology, consequences and treatment. Nature Review Nephrology. 2010;6:21.
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-PolicyDocument.htm. Accessed Aug.. 22, 2011.
- Rethinking drinking: Alcohol and your health. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/RethinkingDrinking/Rethinking_Drinking.pdf. Accessed Aug. 22, 2012.
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