is prehypertension a risk factors for cardiovascular diseases among iranian women?

background: numerous studies have reported prehypertension (pre-htn) as a risk factor for the cardiovascular diseases as hypertension (htn). aim: the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of pre-htn on cardiovascular incidences among the females of isfahan cohort study (ics). materials and methods: healthy female at baseline were followed for a median of 6.7 years. they were divided into 3 groups of normal blood pressure, pre-htn (120/80 < bp < 139/89 mmhg) and htn (bp > 140/90 mmhg) based on their baseline measurements. the endpoints were ischemic heart disease (ihd), stroke, cvd (combination of ihd and stroke) and mortality. results: normal bp, pre-htn and htn were observed in 1073 (33%), 1185 (36%), and 994 (31%) participants, respectively. one hundred and ninety-eight subjects developed cvds and 110 died. in the htn group, the hazard ratio [hrs (95% confidence interval)] adjusted for age and other risk factors were 3.44 (1.95-6.09) for ihd ( p value < 0.001), 1.28 (0.59-2.77) for stroke ( p value = 0.536) 4.89 (1.37-17.45) for cvd mortality ( p value < 0.001) and 1.70 (0.98-2.96) for all cause mortality ( p value = 0.060) . although, pre-htn significantly increased the risk of ihd incidence in the crude model (hr 2.21, 95% ci 1.23-3.97) and after adjustments for age (hr 1.85, 95% ci 1.02-3.33), ( p value < 0.001) the association did not remain statistically significant after including other risk factors in the model. conclusion: hypertension ( htn) to be a strong risk factor for cvd and ihd. however, in contrast to previous researches, pre-htn was not found to be a risk factor for cvd, ihd or death independent to other risk factors in women.