Nature and Science of Sleep (Oct 2021)

Subjective Poor Sleep Quality is Associated with Higher Blood Pressure and Prevalent Hypertension in General Population Independent of Sleep Disordered Breathing

  • Yang Z,
  • Heizhati M,
  • Wang L,
  • Li M,
  • Pan F,
  • Wang Z,
  • Abudureyimu R,
  • Hong J,
  • Yao L,
  • Yang W,
  • Liu S,
  • Li N

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 1759 – 1770

Abstract

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Zhikang Yang,1– 3,* Mulalibieke Heizhati,1– 3,* Lin Wang,1– 3 Mei Li,1– 3 Fengyu Pan,1– 3 Zhongrong Wang,1– 3 Reyila Abudureyimu,1– 3 Jing Hong,1– 3 Ling Yao,1– 3 Wenbo Yang,1– 3 Shasha Liu,1– 3 Nanfang Li1– 3 1Hypertension Center, People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Xinjiang Hypertension Institute, Urumqi, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China; 3National Health Committee Key Laboratory of Hypertension Clinical Research, Urumqi, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Nanfang Li Email [email protected]: To explore the relationship of subjective sleep quality with blood pressure (BP) and hypertension by considering the influence of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and age in the general population.Methods: We evaluated sleep quality using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and SDB using NoSAS score and measured BP in randomly selected adults in China in 2019. Sleep quality is categorized into four groups as very good, fairly good, fairly bad and very bad. SDB is defined as NoSAS score ≥ 8. Hypertension is defined as systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg, and/or use of antihypertensive medicine within previous 2 weeks. Multi-variable linear and logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association of global PSQI score and sleep quality with BP and prevalent hypertension.Results: In the 33,341 participants (53.4% women, median age: 48 years), prevalence of hypertension significantly increased from very good to very bad sleepers in total (34.3 vs 42.6 vs 50.3 vs 58.5%), SDB (61.2 vs 68.3 vs 73.3 vs 75.5%) and non-SDB participants (26.8 vs 33.1 vs 40.1 vs 50.9%). In multiple linear regression, PSQI global score showed significant positive association with BP levels in total, SDB and non-SDB participants, consistent in sensitivity analysis by excluding participants who were taking antihypertensives, and in participants aged < 60 years in age-stratified analysis. In multivariable logistic regression, odds ratio for presence of hypertension significantly increased from very good to very bad sleepers in total (1 vs 1.08 vs 1.22 vs 1.48), SDB (1 vs 1.17 vs 1.35 vs 1.28) and non-SDB participants (1 vs 1.05 vs 1.14 vs 1.53), consistent in participants aged < 60 years.Conclusion: Poor subjective sleep quality is significantly associated with higher BP and prevalent hypertension, independent of SDB in the young- and middle-aged general population, indicating potential of improving sleep quality to lower BP and optimize hypertension management at population level.Keywords: sleep quality, sleep disordered breathing, blood pressure, prevalent hypertension

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