eprintid: 10135682 rev_number: 20 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/13/56/82 datestamp: 2021-10-05 15:22:53 lastmod: 2021-12-02 00:29:51 status_changed: 2021-10-05 15:22:53 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Bann, D creators_name: Scholes, S creators_name: Hardy, R creators_name: O'Neill, D title: Changes in the body mass index and blood pressure association across time: Evidence from multiple cross-sectional and cohort studies ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B16 divisions: B14 divisions: J81 divisions: B02 keywords: Blood pressure, Body mass index, Hypertension, Obesity, Trends note: This is an Open Access article published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). abstract: Although body mass index (BMI) is considered a key determinant of high blood pressure, its importance may differ over time and by age group. We utilised separate data sources to investigate temporal changes in this association: 23 independent (newly sampled), repeated cross-sectional studies (Health Survey for England (HSE)) at ≥25 years (1994-2018; N = 126,742); and three British birth cohorts at 43-46 years (born 1946, 1958, and 1970; N = 18,657). In HSE, associations were weaker in more recent years, with this trend most pronounced amongst older adults. After adjustment for sex, anti-hypertensive treatment and education, the mean difference in systolic blood pressure (SBP) per 1 kg/m2 increase in BMI amongst adults ≥55 years was 0.75 mmHg (95%CI: 0.60-0.90) in 1994, 0.66 mmHg (0.46-0.85) in 2003, and 0.53 mmHg (0.35-0.71) in 2018. In the 1958 and 1970 cohorts, BMI and SBP associations were of similar magnitude yet weaker in the 1946 cohort, potentially due to differences in blood pressure measurement device. Quantile regression analyses suggested that associations between BMI and SBP were present both below and above the hypertension threshold. A weaker association between BMI and blood pressure may partly offset the public health impacts of increasing obesity prevalence. However, despite sizable increases in use of antihypertensive medication, BMI remains positively associated with SBP in all ages. Our findings highlight the need to tackle non-medical factors such as population diet which influence both BMI and blood pressure and the utility of using multiple datasets to obtain robust inferences on trends in risk factor-outcome associations across time. date: 2021-09-30 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106825 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1891656 doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106825 pii: S0091-7435(21)00394-7 lyricists_name: Bann, David lyricists_name: Hardy, Rebecca lyricists_name: O'Neill, Dara lyricists_name: Scholes, Shaun lyricists_id: DBANN02 lyricists_id: RHARD63 lyricists_id: DONEI20 lyricists_id: SSCHO95 actors_name: Allington-Smith, Dominic actors_id: DAALL44 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Preventive Medicine article_number: 106825 event_location: United States citation: Bann, D; Scholes, S; Hardy, R; O'Neill, D; (2021) Changes in the body mass index and blood pressure association across time: Evidence from multiple cross-sectional and cohort studies. Preventive Medicine , Article 106825. 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106825 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106825>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135682/3/O%27Neill_1-s2.0-S0091743521003947-main.pdf