Concordant Hypertension Observed in Heterosexual Couples

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Within heterosexual couples, concordance of hypertension is seen consistently across four countries, according to a study published online Dec. 6 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Jithin Sam Varghese, Ph.D., from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues used cross-sectional dyadic data on heterosexual couples from four studies in the United States (U.S. Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study), England (English Longitudinal Study on Aging), China (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study), and India (Longitudinal Aging Study in India), with 3,989; 1,086; 6,514; and 22,389 couples, respectively.

The researchers found that the prevalence of concordant hypertension, defined as both husband and wife in a couple having hypertension, was 37.9, 47.1, 20.8, and 19.8 percent in the United States, England, China, and India, respectively. Wives married to husbands with hypertension were more likely to have hypertension than those married to husbands without hypertension in the United States, England, China, and India (prevalence ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.09 [1.01 to 1.17], 1.09 [0.98 to 1.21], 1.26 [1.17 to 1.35], and 1.19 [1.15 to 1.24], respectively). Similar associations were seen for husbands within each country. Associations in the United States and England were similar, and they were slightly larger in China and India.

"Approximately half of all hypertension cases are concordant within spouses, implying that up to half of middle-aged and older adults with hypertension could benefit from the couple-centered strategy to improve hypertension diagnosis and management," the authors write.

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