STanding blood pressure and its AssociatioN with cardiovascular Disease and aDverse events

Why are we doing this research?

Blood pressure measurement is a common test used by doctors and nurses. Having high blood pressure can cause problems, such as heart attacks and strokes.

When some people stand up, their blood pressure can go down. This can make people feel dizzy and sometimes fall. This problem affects 1-in-5 people, even if they have high blood pressure. It is also more common in older people.

Blood pressure is normally measured while people are sitting. If blood pressure is found to be high, then medication might be recommended to lower it. However, some experts worry that lowering blood pressure using medication in people who feel dizzy or fall when standing up might make this problem worse. Because of this, guidance for doctors recommends that blood pressure should also be measured in people standing up. However, there is very little scientific evidence for doing this. If we measure blood pressure standing up, we may not pick up high blood pressure so easily as everyone’s blood pressure reduces a bit when standing up from a seated position. This means that people who feel dizzy when they stand might not be treated, and this could lead to more heart attacks or strokes. It is therefore important for us to understand how standing blood pressure is related to heart attacks, strokes and falls.

What is the aim of the research?

This research will find out if blood pressure measured while standing up can tell us about the future risk of having heart attacks or strokes. It will also help us understand more about the harms of low blood pressure when people stand, such as falling.
What will we do?

We will combine data from four different research studies from around the world. These studies include health information for over 15,000 people, including sitting and standing blood pressure measurements. This approach is much easier, quicker and cheaper than recruiting participants to a new research study. We will analyse the information to find out how standing (and sitting) blood pressure is associated with problems such as heart attacks, strokes or falls. We will also search for other research studies with similar data so that we can combine it with our existing four studies in the future. This will let us do further research to study this problem in even more detail.

How will this make a difference?

The results of this research will help doctors and nurses improve patient care by making better decisions about treating high blood pressure in people with low blood pressure when they stand up; this will help reduce the risk of having heart attacks, strokes and falls for many people.

Amount awarded: £241,592