New-onset hypertension more common after COVID-19 than after influenza
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Key takeaways:
- New-onset persistent hypertension is more likely in patients with COVID-19 than in patients with influenza.
- The difference exists regardless of whether patients were hospitalized.
The incidence of new-onset persistent hypertension is greater in patients with COVID-19 than in those with influenza, researchers reported in Hypertension.
“Given the sheer number of people affected by COVID-19 compared to influenza, these statistics are alarming and suggest that many more patients will likely develop high blood pressure in the future, which may present a major public health burden,” Tim Q. Duong, PhD, professor of radiology and vice chair for radiology research and associate director of integrative imaging and data science at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Health and Data Innovation, said in a press release. “These findings should heighten awareness to screen at-risk patients for hypertension after COVID-19 illness to enable earlier identification and treatment for hypertension-related complications, such as cardiovascular and kidney disease.”
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Duong and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of 45,398 patients who had COVID-19 from March 2020 to August 2022 and 13,864 patients who had influenza from January 2018 to August 2022. All were free from hypertension at baseline.
At 6 months, the rate of new-onset persistent hypertension was 20.6% in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and 10.85% in nonhospitalized patients with COVID-19, Duong and colleagues found. The rates were 16.3% in those hospitalized with influenza and 4.4% in those with influenza who were not hospitalized.
In the COVID-19 cohort, the rate of new-onset persistent hypertension did not change during the pandemic in the hospitalized cohort, but in the nonhospitalized cohort, it fell from about 20% in March 2020 to about 10% in October 2020, and then plateaued (R2 = 0.79; P = .003), according to the researchers.
Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to develop new-onset persistent hypertension than patients hospitalized with influenza (adjusted OR = 2.23; 95% CI, 1.48-3.54; P < .001) and patients with COVID-19 who were not hospitalized were more than 50% more likely to develop new-onset persistent hypertension than nonhospitalized patients with influenza (aOR = 1.52; 95% CI, 1.22-1.9; P < .01), Duong and colleagues wrote.
Among all patients with COVID-19, the factors most associated with developing new-onset persistent hypertension were Black race, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and CAD, according to the researchers.
In those hospitalized with COVID-19, 21% developed in-hospital hypertension. The rate was 13.7% in those hospitalized with influenza.
“New-onset persistent hypertension may constitute a major cardiovascular sequela at a population level,” Duong and colleagues wrote. “Identifying risk factors for developing new-onset hypertension may draw clinical attention for the need for careful follow-up in at-risk individuals post-COVID-19 infection.”
Reference:
- COVID-19 may trigger new-onset high blood pressure. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/covid-19-may-trigger-new-onset-high-blood-pressure. Published Aug. 21, 2023. Accessed Aug. 21, 2023.
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