[Significance of high normal blood pressure in occupational health care]

In order to elucidate the significance of high normal blood pressure in occupational health care, a 5 year follow up survey was performed on 874 men with normal blood pressure and 225 men with high normal blood pressure. The major results of this survey were as follows. 1) Sixty-seven out of 874 with normal blood pressure (7.7%), and 78 out of 225 with high normal blood pressure (34.6%) became hypertensive in 5 years. 2) High normals started with a higher frequency of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hyper gamma-Glutamyl transpeptidasemia compared with normal blood pressure at the start of the survey. 3) Logistic regression analysis showed that age, SBP, DBP were risk factors of developing hypertension from normal blood pressure, while only the amount of alcohol drinking applied for high normal blood pressure. 4) Logistic regression showed that high normal blood pressure, drinking, obesity and were significantly related to the development of hypertension. These results suggested that interventive activities for high normal blood pressure should be included in occupational health care because of a high tendency of underlying poor life style and a high risk of getting hypertension.