Mortality in the Jerusalem 70-year-olds longitudinal study: does nifedipine have a role?

Background: Short-acting nifedipine was found to be associated with increased mortality in elderly patients in some studies.

Methods: We examined effects of long-acting nifedipine in a longitudinal study of Jerusalem 70 year olds (448 participants).

Results: After follow-up of 6.5 years (1990-1996) 70 subjects died. We examined the effects of baseline variables on total mortality. Hypertensives had higher mortality than normotensives, 21.2% versus 13.8%, p = 0.01. Diuretic-treated patients (n = 72), mostly hypertensive (n = 71), had significantly higher mortality than non-diuretic-treated patients (n = 375), 45.5% versus 14.1%; p < 0.001. Although nifedipine-treated patients had a higher prevalence of coronary heart disease diagnosis than diuretic-treated patients (52% versus 35%), their relative risk of mortality was 0.8 (CI 0.4-1.4) of that of diuretic-treated patients. A multiple logistic regression model, including gender, systolic blood pressure, creatinine, cholesterol, diagnosis of congestive heart failure, cardiovascular arrest, diabetes, previous myocardial infarction, physical activity, nifedipine, other calcium channel and beta blockers and diuretics, found only serum creatinine and diuretic therapy associated with total mortality, p = 0.004 and p < 0.02, respectively. When interaction terms were added to account for drug combinations, diuretic therapy lost significance, but the combination of diuretics and beta blockers (probably representing a more severe form of hypertension) became significant, p = 0.03.

Conclusion: Long acting nifedipine is not associated with increased mortality in elderly hypertensives.