Final answer:
Non-modifiable risk factors for primary hypertension include age, gender, genetic background, and family history of cardiovascular disease. These cannot be changed and contribute significantly to the risk of developing high blood pressure. Whereas lifestyle changes can mitigate some risk, these inherent factors remain constant.
Step-by-step explanation:
Non-modifiable risk factors for primary (essential) hypertension include a range of elements that individuals cannot change. These include age, as the risk for hypertension increases with each passing decade, gender, with men generally at a higher risk than premenopausal women, and genetic background, with numerous genes identified as having small impacts on blood pressure. Additionally, a family history of cardiovascular disease can triple an individual's risk compared to the average, with a person's risk of developing cardiovascular diseases being significantly affected if their parents had such diseases.
Primary hypertension is the most common type of high blood pressure, consisting of at least 90% of hypertension cases and is mainly influenced by these genetic and non-modifiable factors, though lifestyle factors like diet and activity do play a role. While behaviors such as lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, obesity, and tobacco use are major modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease and consequently for hypertension, they do not fall under the non-modifiable risk factor category. Other immutable risk factors referenced in the context of various diseases are older age, a family history of specific diseases, and ancestral background, such as African ancestry in the case of prostate cancer.