Study on Risk and Influencing Factors of Hypertension in Chinese Elderly

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of hypertension in elderly patients in China and influencing factors. METHOD: Based on the baseline data in 2013 from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study used the practical incidence estimator (PIE) method to estimate incidence of hypertension, and applied Cox regression to determine the relationship between the hypertension and influencing factors. RESULTS: In general, the incidence of hypertension in elderly patients decreased with age, and the risk of hypertension in females was significantly higher than that in males. The cumulative incidence of hypertension for an individual, who is hypertension-free before the age of 65 years, could reach 86.21% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [85.09%, 87.87%]) during one’s survival time. The status of drinking, pension and work, education background, place of residence, and gender were verified to influence the onset of hypertension. CONCLUSION: For Chinese elderly, developing hypertension during their life span has almost become an inevitable event, which may become a huge social burden in China.