Prevalence, Correlates, and Prognosis of Healthy Vascular Aging in a Western Community-Dwelling Cohort

Hypertension and increased vascular stiffness are viewed as inevitable parts of aging. To elucidate whether the age-related decrease in vascular function is avoidable, we assessed the prevalence, correlates, and prognosis of healthy vascular aging (HVA) in 3196 Framingham Study participants aged ≥50 years. We defined HVA as absence of hypertension and pulse wave velocity <7.6 m/s (mean+2 SD of a reference sample aged <30 years). Overall,...