Postural Fall in Blood Pressure in the Elderly in Relation to Drug Treatment and Other Lifestyle Factors

In a study of 843 independent-living men and women aged between60 and 87 in Perth, Western Australia, stepwise multiple regression,after correction for initial levels of systolic blood pressure,showed that postural fall in systolic blood pressure was positivelyrelated to alcohol intake of more than 20 ml/day, the use ofsleeping tablets and higher levels of anxiety on the Spielbergerstate-trait scale, and negatively related to body mass index.Postural fall in blood pressure was not significantly relatedto treatment for hypertension, age, sex, patterns of usual physicalactivity, tea or coffee drinking, or the diagnosis of diabetesmellitus. This analysis is the first to examine the relationshipbetween lifestyle factors and the magnitude of the fall in systolicblood pressure on standing after adjustment for the associationbetween the change in a variable and its initial level. Ouranalysis suggests the need for further study of the possiblerole of lifestyle factors such as the use of sleeping tabletsand alcohol in postural hypotension in the elderly.