Hypertension and risk of death from external causes in the Physicians' Health Study enrollment cohort

To address the recent hypothesis that hypertension increases the risk of death from external causes. We examined blood pressure and death from external causes among 82,037 male physicians who were screened for eligibility to enroll in the Physicians' Health Study. During up to 6.6 years of mortality follow-up, there were 304 deaths from external causes. No association was found overall, although we observed an increased risk of non-passive external causes of death, particularly death due to falls, which was independent of various lifestyle, medical, and pharmacological risk factors. The results of our study support this novel hypothesis. Further studies are needed to explore potential causal mechanisms between elevated BP and the risk of external death.