By Sola Ogundipe

If one spouse or partner in a heterosexual couple has high blood pressure,  the other partner often does too, according to new research published  in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Many people know that high blood pressure is common in middle-aged and older adults, yet we were surprised to find that among many older couples, both husband and wife had high blood pressure in the U.S., England, China and India,” said senior author Chihua Li, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and the study’s corresponding author.

It was stated that in the US, among more than 35 percent of couples who were ages 50 or older, both had high blood pressure. 

Researchers investigated whether heterosexual partners in the US, England, China and India mirrored each other’s high blood-pressure status. Previous studies have explored the union of high blood pressure and other diseases among couples in a single country setting or used small regional samples.

“Ours is the first study examining the union of high blood pressure  within couples from both high- and middle-income countries,” said study co-lead author Dr Jithin Sam Varghese, an assistant research professor at the Emory Global Diabetes Research Centre at Emory University in Atlanta.

“We wanted to find out if many married couples who often have the same interests, living environment, lifestyle habits and health outcomes may also share high blood pressure.”

The researchers analyzed blood pressure measures for 3,989 US couples, 1,086 English couples, 6,514 Chinese couples and 22,389 Indian couples and found, among others, that, the prevalence of both spouses or partners having high blood pressure was about 47 percent in England; 38 percent in the U.S.; 21 percent in China and 20 percent in India.”

From the study, compared to wives married to husbands without high blood pressure, wives whose husbands had high blood pressure were 9 percent more likely to have high blood pressure in the US and England, 19 percent more likely in India and 26 percent more likely in China.

Within each country, similar associations were observed for husbands. The association was consistent when the analyses were stratified by area of residence within each country, household wealth, length 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 couples’ blood pressure status was stronger in China and India than in the U.S and England. The researchers say one reason might be cultural.

“In China and India, there’s a strong belief in sticking together as a family, so couples might influence each other’s health more,” said study co-lead author Peiyi Lu, a post-doctoral fellow in epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

“In collectivist societies in China and India, couples are expected to depend and support each other, emotionally and instrumentally, so health may be more closely entwined.”

These findings highlight the potential of using couple-based approaches for high blood pressure diagnosis and management, such as couple-based screening, skills training or joint participation in programs, Li noted.

While there’s no specific research directly investigating the prevalence of high blood pressure among couples in Nigeria, individual and couple-related factors to estimate the  potential frequency.

High blood pressure is a prevalent issue in Nigeria, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimating it to be between 8 percent and 46.4 percent of the adult population. Factors contributing to this include urbanisation, unhealthy lifestyles, limited healthcare access, and genetic predisposition.

Couple-related factors include shared lifestyle habits like diet, exercise, and stress levels, which can influence each other’s risk of hypertension.

High blood pressure is likely to be common among some couples in Nigeria. However, the exact prevalence is difficult to determine without dedicated research specifically looking at couples.

Couples may  also share similar socioeconomic conditions and access to healthcare, which can also impact their risk of hypertension. For genetic factors, if one partner has a family history of hypertension, it increases the risk for the other partner.