Pulse pressure and its association with body composition among Chinese men and women without diagnosed hypertension: the China Kadoorie Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Wide brachial pulse pressure (PP) has been associated with cardiovascular events, while its population distribution and association with body composition were poorly characterized in large populations.

METHODS: We evaluated the age and sex distributions of PP and its associations with body composition using baseline data from the China Kadoorie Biobank. A total of 434 200 participants without diagnosed hypertension were included in the analysis. Wide PP was defined as PP above 65 mmHg. Body composition variables, including BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), fat mass index (FMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI), and body fat percentage (BF%), were obtained from bioelectrical impedance analysis.

RESULTS: Overall, 14.3% of the participants had wide PP. Older age was consistently associated with wider PP in women but only after the andropause stage in men. The independent associations of BMI with wide PP were stronger than other body composition measures. The adjusted differences (men/women, mmHg) in PP per standard deviation (SD) increase in BMI (1.55/1.47) were higher than other body composition (BF%: 0.32/0.64, waist circumference: 0.33/0.39; WHR: 0.49/0.42). In addition, sex differences were observed. In men, the per SD difference in PP was higher for FFMI than for FMI (0.91 vs. 0.67, P  < 0.05), whereas in women, it was higher for FMI than for FFMI (1.01 vs. 0.72, P  < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Our nationwide population-based study presented the sex-specific distribution of PP over age and identified differential associations of PP with fat and fat-free mass in men and women.