Epidemiology of high blood pressure.

Experience in isolated "unacculturated" societies suggests that age-related changes in blood pressure are not a biologic necessity. In the developed world, however, blood pressure tends to rise progressively with increasing age, and hypertension in the elderly is an extremely common finding. Blood pressure is positively related to the risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease in elderly persons, as in younger persons, in a graded continuous fashion. Based on prevalence and risk considerations, high blood pressure in the elderly population is one of the most pressing individual and public health problems of this century.