Blood pressure and other risk factors in healthy middle-aged men in relation to self-reported first-degree family history of hypertension.

In a questionnaire-assessed first-degree family history of hypertension obtained in a sizable subsample of middle-aged male attenders to a multiphasic health screening programme in Malmö, the actual blood pressure distributions and other risk factors are compared in the different heredity groups. Both mean values and frequencies of borderline and hypertensive levels of the systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly higher in groups with a family history of hypertension in particular biparental, than in those without. Reported paternal hypertension was less frequent than reported maternal hypertension but resembled more the biparental history group in terms of the recorded blood pressure levels. Several biochemical and physiological variables were compared between the groups, but there were no differences in associated risk factors, including blood lipids, except for higher serum urate in the biparental history group than in the others. Only part of the overrepresentation of increased blood pressure levels that was present appeared to be of the genuine idiopathic variety of hypertension, and the genotype for this disorder did not appear to be associated with other risk factors for hypertension in the population.