At baseline , mean age of the participants was 55.2 11.8 years , and men showed a significantly ( P < 0.001 ) higher prevalence of arterial hypertension ( 55.5 % vs. 36.5 % ) and hyperlipidemia ( 50.7 % vs. 46.0 % ) and a higher blood homocysteine concentration ( 18.68 10.28 mol/L versus 11.69 6.40 mol/L ) .