Predictors of systolic blood pressure response to treadmill exercise: the Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence...

We used multiple linear regression to study predictors of systolic blood pressure response (SBPR), i.e., the increase in pressure above baseline after 3, 6, and 9 min of treadmill exercise, in 4262 men and women. Predictors considered were usual SBP, the difference (delta SBP) between resting SBP and SBP immediately before exercise, age, education, obesity index, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, preexercise heart rate and, in women, gonadal hormone use. In men, age, obesity index, and cigarette smoking were positively associated with SBPR and in women 20 to 49 years old, age, obesity index, and alcohol consumption were positively associated with SBPR. In women 50 years old or older, usual SBP was negatively associated with SBPR. In both men and women a larger delta SBP was associated with a smaller SBPR. These results help explain the considerable variation in SBPR, and the delta SBP results suggest that potential SBPR may, to certain extent, have a specific, finite range. The similarity of predictor variables for SBPR to predictor variables for hypertension is concordant with the previous observation that a high SBPR may foreshadow subsequent hypertension.