Health-related quality of life is worse in individuals with hypertension under drug treatment: results of population-based study

Patients with hypertension usually report lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL), but it is unclear whether this is secondary to high blood pressure (BP) per se , drug treatment or awareness of disease. In a cross-sectional study using a multistage population-based sample, participants were interviewed and examined at home. Hypertension was defined by BP ⩾140/90 mm Hg or use of BP-lowering drugs. HRQoL was assessed through the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and presented as the physical component summary (PCS), mental component summary (MCS) and the SF-12 eight-domain scale. In total, 1858 individuals were evaluated, being 60.1% women, aged 52.5±4.1 years old, and 39.9% men, aged 47.2±9.1 years old. Prevalence of hypertension was 34.2% (95% CI 31.5–36.9). The PCS scores for hypertensive and normotensive participants were 49.4 (CI 48.6–50.2) and 51.06 (CI 50.4–51.7) ( P =0.01), respectively, and the MCS scores were 49.1 (CI 47.9–50.3) and 50.5 (CI 49.6–51.2) ( P =0.06), respectively. Participants with hypertension and not using BP drugs had higher HRQoL scores (PCS 49.6; MCS 51.9) than those using BP drugs either with uncontrolled (PCS 45.3; MCS 49.4) or controlled BP (PCS 46.2; MCS 47.7; P