Assessing the impact of medication use on trends in major coronary risk factors in older British men: a cohort study

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the role of medication in 20-year trends in blood pressure (BP) and blood lipids in older British men.

Methods and results: BP and lipids were measured in 4231 men from a representative cohort at baseline (1978-1980, aged 40-59 years) and after 20 years (1998-2000). Cohort-wide age-adjusted 20-year mean changes were as follows: systolic BP -7.6 mmHg (95% confidence interval: -9.7 to -5.4); diastolic BP +3.3 mmHg (+2.2 to +4.5); non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol -0.4 mmol/l (-0.5 to -0.2); HDL-cholesterol +0.16 mmol/l (+0.13 to +0.19). Much (79%) of the systolic BP fall occurred only among 1561 men (37%) reporting the use of BP-lowering medication during the follow-up; systolic BP changed by -12.3 mmHg (-14.7 to -9.9) and -1.6 mmHg (-3.7 to +0.5) among medication users and men not using medication, respectively (P<0.001 for medication-time interaction). One-third of the non-HDL-cholesterol fall occurred only among 302 men (8%) reporting the use of lipid-regulating drugs; non-HDL-cholesterol changed by -1.8 mmol/l (-2.0 to -1.6) and -0.2 mmol/l (-0.4 to -0.1) among medication users and men not using medication, respectively (P<0.001 for interaction). The HDL-cholesterol increase was not associated with lipid-regulating drug use (P=0.15 for interaction).

Conclusion: Decreases in BP were largely confined to medication users and overall changes in non-HDL-cholesterol were modest, suggesting the need for greater efforts to reduce BP and cholesterol among the general population. HDL-cholesterol increased among all men, likely reflecting cohort-wide improvements in associated health behaviours.