Background: Poor sleep quality is becoming very common in a developed society and relates to many health disorders. However, the association between sleep quality and hypertension has not been well studied in Chinese adults.
Methods: Blood pressure was measured and sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for 5167 participants (mean aged 51± 15 years, 41.5% males) in the Tianning Cohort. A logistic regression model was constructed to examine the association between sleep quality, as well as its components, and hypertension, adjusting for age, sex, education level, current smoking, current drinking, physical activity, obesity, glucose, and blood lipids.
Results: After multivariate adjustment, a higher score Of the PSQI was significantly associated with an increased risk of prevalent hypertension (OR=1.03, P =0.018). Compared to participants with normal sleep (the PSQI score < 5), those with a poor sleep quality (the PSQI score ≥ 5) had a 17% increased risk of prevalent hypertension (OR=1.17, P =0.042). Three of the seven components of sleep quality, such as subjective sleep quality (OR=1.17, P =0.001), sleep latency (OR=1.11, P =0.010), and sleep disturbances (OR=1.19, P =0.004), were also significantly associated with prevalent hypertension.
Conclusion: Poor sleep quality is increasingly prevalent in developed societies and may be related to an increased risk of hypertension in Chinese adults. The underlying causality is waiting to be studied.
Keywords: sleep quality, hypertension, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index