New Study Finds High Blood Pressure Affects Both Partners in Heterosexual Couples: Implications for Managing Hypertension Together

2023-12-07 12:00:59
This article was originally published in English

A new study of heterosexual couples from several countries found that high blood pressure often affects both partners.

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Are you in a heterosexual relationship and suffer from high blood pressure? According to a new study, there is a good chance that your partner living under the same roof also suffers from it.

According to the study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association20 to 47% of married or civil partnership couples living under the same roof, middle-aged or older, both have high blood pressure.

The study was carried out in the United States, United Kingdom, China and India.

“Many people know that high blood pressure is common among middle-aged and elderly adults, but we were surprised to find that in many older couples, both the husband and wife had high blood pressure in the United States, United Kingdom, China and India“, declares in a statement the lead author of the study, Chihua Li, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan (United States).

“For example, in the United States, in more than 35% of couples aged 50 or over, both spouses suffered from high blood pressure“.

The study included 3,989 American couples, 1,086 English couples, 6,514 Chinese couples and 22,389 Indian couples.

High blood pressure is more common in the UK and US

In the UK, the prevalence of high blood pressure in both partners was 47% at the time of the study. In the United States it was 38%, in China 21% and in India 20%.

In China, women whose husbands have high blood pressure are 26% more likely to have it as well than those married to people without hypertension.

In India, women whose husbands have high blood pressure are 19% more likely to have it, while in the US and UK the additional risk is 9%. Similar associations were observed for husbands.

“High blood pressure is more common in the United States and the United Kingdom than in China and India, but the association between couples’ high blood pressure was stronger in China and India than in the United States and the United Kingdom” Peiyi Lu, a postdoctoral researcher in epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement.

“One explanation might be cultural. In China and India, there is a strong belief in staying together as a family, so couples can have a greater influence on each other’s health“.

Among the limitations of the study, we can cite the fact thatit included only one measurement of participants’ blood pressure and only involved heterosexual couples.

The authors said this study showed the potential of couple treatments for hypertension.

According to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, 22% of people in Member States suffer from high blood pressure.

Studies have shown that hypertension is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, heart failure and stroke.

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