Women experience steeper rises in blood pressure throughout life than men, a new study suggests, upending the notion that vascular disease processes in women lag behind men by 10-20 years.

The findings also suggest that such hypertensive changes could begin in early adulthood and dictate the development of cardiovascular disease in later life, researchers say.

Writing in JAMA Cardiology, a team led by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, US, analysed longitudinal blood pressure measurements from almost 33,000 participants (54% female), with ages spanning from five to 98 years.

The data was collected over a period of 43 years, during which 30% of men and 21% of women developed new-onset ‘hard’ cardiovascular disease events.