High depressive symptom burden, hypertension up risk of new-onset stroke
27 Dec 2020
High depressive symptom burden and hypertension deliver a one-two combo on middle-aged and older adults in terms of developing new-onset stroke, evidence form a nationwide prospective cohort study has shown.
The authors used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study during 2011–2015 to investigate whether the combination of high depressive symptom burden and hypertension increased the risk of stroke among middle-aged and older Chinese.
The final analysis included a total of 12,604 participants. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to explore the relationship between high depressive symptom burden, hypertension, and new-onset stroke.
Overall, 244 stroke events occurred during a follow-up of 4 years. Individuals with high depressive symptom burden alone (hazard ratio [HR], 1.96, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.13–3.42), individuals with hypertension alone (HR, 2.84, 95 percent CI, 1.77–4.57), and individuals with comorbid high depressive symptom burden and hypertension (HR, 4.38, 95 percent CI, 2.66–7.20) had higher risk of stroke than those without high depressive symptom burden and hypertension.
Subgroup analyses showed that people with coexisting high depressive symptom burden and hypertension had the highest risk of new-onset stroke in all subgroups.
“Our results suggest a combined effect of high depressive symptom burden and hypertension on stroke risk among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese,” the authors said.