Risk Factor of Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Individuals

In spite of the increase in the attribute of metabolic disorders to the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension remains the most important risk factor in Japanese people 1, 2). Hypertension accounted for more than one-third of stroke incidence in the mostly middle-aged participants of the Japan Public Health Center-based prospective (JPHC) Study 3). It is an established risk factor of stroke in much older individuals too 4, 5). In the Suita Study, the cumulative lifetime risk of stroke at the age of 75 years was 11.8% and 13.1% for hypertensive men and women, respectively; the risk lowers to 5.5% and 5.3% for men and women without hypertension, respectively 6). Furthermore, it was reported in this issue of the Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis that hypertension was the only risk factor significantly associated with stroke incidence in individuals aged ≥ 75 years (old-old) and 60 – 74 years (young-old) in the Ohasama Study 7). These results from the observational studies 8-16) together with findings of previous intervention studies 17-20) confirm the appropriateness of the current hypertension guidelines for the management of hypertension for older individuals in Japan 21) (Table 1). Evidence from observational studies generally requires careful interpretation. It is judicious to use some kind of checklist when making a causal judgment 22). For example, diabetes was positively associated with stroke incidence in the young-old participants , but the association was not found in the old-old participants in the Ohasama Study. The authors raised a possibility of selection (bias) for this unexpected finding, i.e., those who survived to be old-old might have a resistance to the effect of diabetes on the cardiovascular system. Apart from this authors' idea, we can discuss the issue again using the checklist (Table 2). Confounding refers to a situation where the association between two variables (causal-and outcome-assumed variables) arises (becomes stronger) or diminishes (becomes weaker) under the existence of a confounding variable that is associated with both the variables. We cannot expect that all the confounding variables are always measured. A confounding variable is not a mediator; but is a factor that is generated by the causal variable and pathophysiologically affects the outcome variable by definition. In the study, nutritional condition and body habitus might have been the confounding variables if they had been related to both diabetes and stroke incidence 23, 24). Another possible confounding factor is health service usage. If blood pressure of …