. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Nov 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2015 Sep 9;16(11):933–939. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2015.07.014

Table 1.

Reverse Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Geriatric Population.

Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease	Direction of the Association Between Risk Factors and Outcomes		Comments
Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease	General Population	Geartric Popultion	Comments
Obesity	Obesity (High BMI, waist circumference, or % body fat) is deleterious. ^18,19	Some degrees of obesity seems protective.^5,6,23,25	Patients with CKD, CHF, COPD, rheumatoic arthritis, AIDS and malignancies have obesity paradoxes similar to the geriatric population.^{13,15,45,46,56}
Hypercholesterolemia	Hypercholesterolemia (high total cholesterol or non-HDL cholesterol) is deleterious.²⁹	Hypercholesterolemia seems protective.^7–10,33	Similar lipid paradoxes are reported in patients with CKD, CHF, COPD and rheumatoic arthritis.^13,45,46
Hypertension	Hypertension (high systolic or diastolic blood pressure) is deleterious.³⁹	Low blood pressure is deleterious but hypertension is not.^11,12	Blood pressure paradoxes is also reported in patients with CKD and CHF. ^45,46

BMI: Body mass index; CKD: Chronic kidney disease; CHF: chronic heart failure; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; AIDS: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; non-HDL cholesterol: Non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol.