Patients who had Covid-19 may be more likely to develop hypertension, even if they don’t have a history of high blood pressure, a new study found.
The study, published in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension, is the first to examine the link between a Covid infection and hypertension. Patients hospitalized with Covid were over twice as likely as those hospitalized with influenza to develop persistent hypertension, emphasizing the need for healthcare providers to look for and manage hypertension in patients recovering from Covid.
“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 Duong, professor and vice chair for radiology research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in New York City, said in a statement.
The study analyzed the electronic health records of 45,000+ Montefiore patients hospitalized with a Covid diagnosis between March 2020 and mid-February 2022 and compared them to 13,000+ Montefiore patients hospitalized with influenza between January 2018 and mid-February 2022. Over 20% of patients hospitalized for Covid and 11% who weren’t hospitalized for the coronavirus developed hypertension. In comparison, only 16% of patients hospitalized for influenza and 4% of those not hospitalized developed the condition, the study found.
Covid patients who were treated with vasopressors, which are used for patients with low blood pressure, as well as corticosteroids were also more likely to have persistent high blood pressure, according to the study. (These patients also returned to the health system “for any medical reason” after an average of six months for a follow-up.)
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However, Duong said that it’s “unknown whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus may trigger the development of high blood pressure or worsen preexisting hypertension.”
Increased risk factors
About half of adults in the US have high blood pressure and only a quarter have the condition under control, the CDC estimates. High blood pressure leads to about $131 billion in healthcare spending each year, according to a 2018 study from researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston Health Equity and Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC), and the Ralph H. Johnson Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Charleston.
Additional factors may put patients at higher risk of high blood pressure following Covid.
Montefiore researchers noted that many of the patients in the study were from “communities with low socioeconomic status.”
These populations are already at risk for untreated high blood pressure, according to Million Hearts, a national initiative run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Patients over 40, men, Black adults, and patients with preexisting conditions like coronary artery disease were also more likely to develop persistent high blood pressure after a Covid infection, the study found.
“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,” Duong said.