Susceptibility of hypertensive individuals to acute blood pressure increases in response to personal-level environmental temperature decrease

Yifan Xu; Yiqun Han; Wu Chen; Lia Chatzidiakou; Li Yan; Anika Krause; Yilin Li; Hanbin Zhang; Teng Wang; Tao Xue; Queenie Chan; Ben Barratt; Roderic L. Jones; Jing Liu; Yangfeng Wu; Meiping Zhao; Junfeng Zhang; Frank J. Kelly; Tong Zhu

Environment International (Mar 2024)

Susceptibility of hypertensive individuals to acute blood pressure increases in response to personal-level environmental temperature decrease

Yifan Xu,
Yiqun Han,
Wu Chen,
Lia Chatzidiakou,
Li Yan,
Anika Krause,
Yilin Li,
Hanbin Zhang,
Teng Wang,
Tao Xue,
Queenie Chan,
Ben Barratt,
Roderic L. Jones,
Jing Liu,
Yangfeng Wu,
Meiping Zhao,
Junfeng Zhang,
Frank J. Kelly,
Tong Zhu

Affiliations

Yifan Xu: BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yiqun Han: BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Wu Chen: BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
Lia Chatzidiakou: Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
Li Yan: Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Anika Krause: Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
Yilin Li: Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
Hanbin Zhang: Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Teng Wang: BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
Tao Xue: Institute of Reproductive and Child Health, Ministry of Health Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
Queenie Chan: Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Ben Barratt: Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Roderic L. Jones: Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
Jing Liu: Department of Epidemiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Vessel Diseases, Beijing, China
Yangfeng Wu: Peking University Clinical Research Institute, Beijing, China
Meiping Zhao: College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China
Junfeng Zhang: Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China
Frank J. Kelly: Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; Corresponding authors.
Tong Zhu: BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; Corresponding authors.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 185
p. 108567

Abstract

Read online

Background: Environmental temperature is negatively associated with blood pressure (BP), and hypertension may exacerbate this association. The aim of this study is to investigate whether hypertensive individuals are more susceptible to acute BP increases following temperature decrease than non-hypertensive individuals. Methods: The study panel consisted of 126 hypertensive and 125 non-hypertensive (n = 251) elderly participants who completed 940 clinical visits during the winter of 2016 and summer of 2017 in Beijing, China. Personal-level environmental temperature (PET) was continuously monitored for each participant with a portable sensor platform. We associated systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) with the average PET over 24 h before clinical visits using linear mixed-effects models and explored hourly lag patterns for the associations using distributed lag models. Results: We found that per 1 °C decrease in PET, hypertensive individuals showed an average (95 % confidence interval) increase of 0.96 (0.72, 1.19) and 0.28 (0.13, 0.42) mmHg for SBP and DBP, respectively; and non-hypertensive participants showed significantly smaller increases of 0.28 (0.03, 0.53) mmHg SBP and 0.14 (-0.01, 0.30) mmHg DBP. A lag pattern analysis showed that for hypertensive individuals, the increases in SBP and DBP were greatest following lag 1 h PET decrease and gradually attenuated up to lag 10 h exposure. No significant BP change was observed in non-hypertensive individuals associated with lag 1–24 h PET exposure. The enhanced increase in PET-associated BP in hypertensive participants (i.e., susceptibility) was more significant in winter than in summer. Conclusions: We found that a decrease in environmental temperature was associated with acute BP increases and these associations diminished over time, disappearing after approximately 10 hours. This implies that any intervention measures to prevent BP increases due to temperature drop should be implemented as soon as possible. Such timely interventions are particularly needed for hypertensive individuals especially during the cold season due to their increased susceptibility.

Published in Environment International

ISSN: 0160-4120 (Print)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Environmental sciences
Website: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/environment-international

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords