OBJECTIVES:

To address the recent hypothesis that hypertension increases the risk of death from external causes.

METHODS:

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.

RESULTS:

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.

CONCLUSIONS:

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.