The more advanced degrees a person has, the lower his blood pressure is, a study published online has found. An analysis(分析)of some 4,000 patient records from the 30year Framingham Offspring Study found that, only considering age, women with 17 years or more of education, a master's or doctor's degree, had systolic(收缩的)blood pressure readings 3. 26 mmHg lower than female high school dropouts. "Men who went to graduate school had systolic blood pressure readings that were 2. 26 mmHg lower than the people who did not finish high school, "the study, published online in the open access journal BMC Public Health says.
The same inverse relationship between education and blood pressure was also seen, although to a lesser degree, in men and women who got bachelor's degrees(学士学位)at university but did not continue on to graduate school. They showed greater blood pressure benefits than high school dropouts but lesser benefits than holders of master's or doctor's degrees, the study found. Even after considering influences such as smoking, drinking and overweight, the benefits continued to exist, although at a lower level.
The study could help explain the widely documented relation in developed countries between education and lower risk of heart disease, said lead author Eric Loucks, an assistant professor of public health at Brown University in Rhode Island. Blood pressure is "one of the biological bases of heart disease, "said Loucks, asking policymakers who want to improve public health to think about improving access to education.
The study focused on systolic blood pressure over diastolic(舒张的)blood pressure because "systolic high blood pressure is more common than diastolic high blood pressure."
