Should women have lower blood pressure targets than men? Sex differences in blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in the UK Biobank

Abstract

Background Recent studies show that the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) increases from a lower nadir of systolic blood pressure (SBP) in women than men, and increases thereafter at a greater rate. This has led to a suggestion that sex-based SBP thresholds are required. We aimed to investigate sex differences in the associations of SBP and incident atherosclerotic CVD in a large prospective cohort.