Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of study participants (n=2430)

Characteristics	Values
Age, mean (SD)	74.6 (4.8)
Male, n (%)	1005 (41.4)
Low education*, n (%)	487 (20.0)
Current smoker, n (%)	269 (11.1)
Hypertension**, n (%)	1886 (77.6)
Diabetes mellitus, n (%)	225 (9.3)
Body mass index, kg/m2, mean (SD)	27.2 (4.1)
Systolic blood pressure, mmHg, mean (SD)	141.3 (19.8)
Diastolic blood pressure, mmHg, mean (SD)	74.2 (9.4)
Total cholesterol, mmol/L, mean (SD)	5.6 (1.1)
eGFR, ml/min, mean (SD)	66.8 (18.5)
Coronary heart disease, n (%)	449 (18.5)
Atrial fibrillation, n (%)	256 (10.6)
Stroke, n (%)	99 (4.6)
Dementia	31 (1.3)
Serum NT-proBNP (ng/L), median (IQR)	124.9 (70.5–229.3)
Carotid intima media thickness (mm), mean (SD)	1.0 (0.1)
Total brain tissue volume, (ml), mean (SD)	1077.8 (102.6)
Grey matter volume, (ml), mean (SD)	686.7 (62.5)
White matter volume, (ml), mean (SD)	391.1 (47.9)

Abbreviations: n: number, SD: standard deviation, IQR: interquartile range, eGFR: estimated glomerular filtration rate

^*Primary school education or less

^**History of hypertension or use of antihypertensive medications