© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 183
A. Covic et al. (eds.), Resistant Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56827-0_12
Chapter 12
Resistant Hypertension in Elderly People
with Chronic Kidney Disease
Raúl Fernández-Prado, Esmeralda Castillo-Rodríguez, and Alberto Ortiz
Aging of the Population
Individuals over 60 years are usually considered elderly. Inside this group, two catego-
ries are recognized, those 60–80-year-olds and those aged over 80 years. It is likely that
as the population ages, a new category of centenarians will be considered.
In recent decades, global life expectancy for both sexes increased from 65.3
years in 1990 to 71.5 years in 2013, and the trend is to a continuous increase. In
1950, the elderly were 8% of the world population; in 2000 they were 10%; and in
2050, according to United Nations projections, the proportion will reach 21% [ 1 ].
The issue is most pressing in most advanced economies (Fig. 12.1).
Reductions in the main causes of death are extending life expectancy. In high-
income countries, age-adjusted death rates for cardiovascular diseases and cancers
have decreased. In developing countries, child deaths from diarrhea, lower respira-
tory infections, and neonatal causes have also decreased. The reduction of the main
causes of death and the aging of the population have resulted in an increase in other
noncommunicable causes of death, like chronic kidney disease, which was the
cause of death that increased the most in the past 20 years, after human immunode-
ficiency virus infection [ 2 ].
Raúl Fernández-Prado and Esmeralda Castillo Rodríguez contributed equally to this work.
R. Fernández-Prado
IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
E. Castillo-Rodríguez
IIS-Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, Madrid, Spain
A. Ortiz (*)
Unidad de Diálisis, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Av Reyes Católicos 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: [email protected]