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Black people, on average, experience earlier onset of elevated blood pressure (BP) and poorer control of BP throughout life than do white people. To establish whether blood pressure is associated with the observed earlier onset of cognitive impairment and faster decline in cognition in black patients, investigators performed a pooled cohort study of almost 20,000 patients (median age at study entry, 55; 20% black [self-reported]). Patients were drawn from five major U.S. population-based cardiovascular risk studies that included measures of BP and cognition. Previous stroke or dementia was an exclusion criterion. Patients were followed for a median 12.4 years.
Cumulative mean systolic BP (SBP) for black patients was about 4 mm Hg higher than…