Try it out: take your blood pressure when you wake up in the morning and then again in late afternoon, and note the difference.

The diurnal cycle influences blood pressure to be lower in the morning and increase throughout the day until early evening.

When determining risk for high blood pressure, it is important to consider ethnicity as a contributing factor.

Research has revealed that ethnicity may be a predictor of blood pressure, but this causation is not necessarily biological, but rather sociocultural.

After puberty, females have lower blood pressure than males, whereas after menopause females have higher blood pressure than males.

Blood pressure is similar in childhood for males and females.

The general pattern is that blood pressure rises with age, so normal variations tend to be higher for older adults.

For example, a blood pressure of 90/50 mm Hg may be normal for a healthy, asymptomatic 20-year-old adult.įactors that influence blood pressure include age, sex, ethnicity, weight, exercise, emotions/stress, pregnancy, and diurnal rhythm as well as medication use and disease processes. The healthcare provider considers the client’s baseline blood pressure and the client’s current health state in conjunction with subjective data and other objective data.

For example, in adults, normal blood pressure can range from 95–145/60–90 mm Hg. However, this is only an average and the healthcare provider needs to consider acceptable ranges for individual clients. The average blood pressure for an adult is sometimes noted as 120/80 mm Hg.

High blood pressure chart for seniors