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Middle-aged people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop a common form of dementia, the largest study of its kind has found, it is reported in The Times today (May 19).

The risk was biggest among people aged 30 to 50 years; the higher their blood pressure the greater their chances of developing vascular dementia, scientists in Oxford and Sydney found.

About 150,000 people in Britain have vascular dementia €” more than any other form of the condition apart from Alzheimer's. Previous research had found that strokes could lead to the condition but the latest study of millions of British patients found that high blood pressure alone also increased the risk.