Abstract

Aging is often associated with increased systolic blood pressure and decreased diastolic blood pressure. Isolated systolic hypertension or an elevated systolic blood pressure without an elevated diastolic blood pressure is a known risk factor for incident heart failure in older adults. In the current study, we examined whether isolated diastolic hypotension, defined as a diastolic blood pressure <60 mm Hg and a systolic blood pressure ≥100 mm Hg, is associated with incident heart failure. Of the 5795 Medicare-eligible community-dwelling adults age ≥65 years in the Cardiovascular Health Study, 5521 were free of prevalent heart failure at baseline. After excluding 145 individuals with baseline systolic blood pressure <100 mm Hg, the final sample included 5376 participants, of whom 751 (14%) had isolated diastolic hypotension. Propensity scores for isolated diastolic hypotension were calculated for each of the 5376 participants and used to match 545 and 2348 participants with and without isolated diastolic hypotension, respectively, who were balanced on 58 baseline characteristics. During >12 years of median follow-up, centrally adjudicated incident heart failure developed in 25% and 20% of matched participants with and without isolated diastolic hypotension, respectively (hazard ratio associated with isolated diastolic hypotension: 1.33 [95% CI: 1.10-1.61]; P=0.004). Among the 5376 prematch individuals, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio for incident heart failure associated with isolated diastolic hypotension was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.09-1.53; P=0.003). As in isolated systolic hypertension, among community-dwelling older adults without prevalent heart failure, isolated diastolic hypotension is also a significant independent risk factor for incident heart failure.