High blood pressure disease, better known as hypertension, doubled between 1990 and 2019: it went from 650 million people to 1.3 billion. Almost half of the people in the world with this condition today are unaware that they suffer from it, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Scientific research is looking for ways to give people access to early diagnosis, and a study of the University of Michigan and other institutions in the United States allowed us to investigate what happens in heterosexual couples with respect to hypertension.
In the analysis they found that if one spouse or member of a couple has hypertension, the other often has it as well. The study was published in Journal of the American Heart Associationa peer-reviewed open access journal of the American Heart Association.
“Many people know that high blood pressure is common in middle-aged and older adults, but we were surprised to discover that among many older couples, both the husband and wife had high blood pressure in the US, England, China and India,” said lead author Chihua Li, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. “For example, in the United States, more than 35% of couples aged 50 or older both had hypertension,” he noted.
Previous studies have explored the linkage of high blood pressure and other diseases between couples in a single country setting or have used small regional samples. Now, the researchers studied whether couples reflected each other’s hypertension status.
“It is a very interesting find,” he told Infobae Nicholas Rennacardiologist, president of the Argentine Society of Arterial Hypertension (SAHA) and teacher of the National University of Cuyo.
“This is a very well-developed investigation, beyond its limitations. He evaluated heterosexual people living under the same roof. They found a statistically significant association. Based on the results, blood pressure could be measured in a person with hypertension and include the partner. This way, cases could be detected earlier, treated and measures to change habits could be applied as a way to reduce the mortality rate due to hypertension,” commented Renna.
“It is the first study to examine the linkage of high blood pressure within couples from high- and middle-income countries,” said the study’s co-author. Jithin Sam Vargheseresearch assistant professor at the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center Emory University in Atlanta.
“We wanted to find out whether many married couples who tend to have the same interests, living environment, lifestyle habits, and health outcomes can also share high blood pressure,” said the researchers, who analyzed the blood pressure measurements of 3,989 American couples. 1,086 English couples, 6,514 Chinese couples and 22,389 Indian couples, and found that:
– The prevalence of both spouses or partners having high blood pressure was approximately 47% in England; 38% in the US; 21% in China and 20% in India.
– Compared with women married to husbands without hypertension, women whose husbands had hypertension were 9% more likely to have it in the US and England, 19% more likely in India, and 26% more likely in China.
– Within each country, similar associations were observed for husbands, which held when analyzes were stratified by area of residence within each country, household wealth, duration of marriage, age groups, and education levels.
“High blood pressure is more common in the US and England than in China and India, however, the association between partners’ blood pressure status was stronger in China and India than in the US and England . One reason could be cultural. “In China and India there is a strong belief in staying together as a family, so couples could have more influence on each other’s health,” said the study’s co-author. Peiyi Lufrom the Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University.
These findings highlight the potential of using couple-based approaches for the diagnosis and management of hypertension, such as couple screening, skills training, or joint participation in programs, Li said.
It is worth clarifying that the average age of the husbands in the study was 65.7 years in the US; 74.2 years in England; 61.5 years in China; and 57.2 years in India. The average age of wives was 62.9 years in the US, 72.5 years in England, 59.2 years in China and 51.1 years in India.
High blood pressure was defined from measurements taken at a given time. Participants were considered to have hypertension if they had one of the following symptoms: systolic blood pressure greater than 140 milimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or diastolic greater than 90 mm Hg, as measured by healthcare professionals; or if they answered affirmatively to the question of whether they had a history of hypertension.
Limitations of the study include its cross-sectional design, meaning that it captured a single point in time and therefore only one blood pressure measurement, and that the surveys only included heterosexual couples.
In dialogue with Infobae from Spain, Miguel Camafort Babkowskispecialist in the Hypertension and Vascular Risk Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelonaconsidered that based on the study carried out by researchers from the United States, it is possible to take into account two lessons.
“Should we do therapeutic intervention for hypertension as a couple? It looks like it is. If both share harmful lifestyles, the response will be more successful by intervening on the couple,” said Camafort Babkiowski. “Should we screen the partners of hypertensive patients? Probably yes, although we need more data,” he said.
Marcos Marincoordinator of the Arterial Hypertension section of the Medical Clinic Service of the San Justo Italian Hospital and former president of the Argentine Hypertension Societyhe said when consulted by Infobae: “The average age of the couples who participated in the study is high. Generally, with older age, the prevalence of hypertension is very high. Both men and women. Therefore, it is logical that they have found that couples of those ages have a high prevalence. However, between the ages of 20 and 40, men are more hypertensive than women. In those cases, the possibility of both in a couple being hypertensive should be lower.”
Furthermore, he highlighted that the results may indicate that “the strategy of studying couples or families may be good for detecting cases of hypertension and treating them in time.” “Having a validated automatic blood pressure monitor at home would improve the diagnosis and control of hypertension. But this hypothesis deserves to be investigated,” said Dr. Marín.
The truth is that it is recommended that all people over 18 years of age have their blood pressure measured every year by health personnel. On the other hand, people who are at risk of suffering from it – such as those who are overweight or obese – or already suffer from hypertension, the measurement should be more frequent. “People who have hypertension must follow treatment. Periodic monitoring should be done to evaluate whether the medication should be adjusted,” emphasized Dr. Renna.