People with high blood pressure have a 22% increased risk of being hospitalised or die from COVID-19, according to new UK research.
A study led by Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the University of Cambridge is the first to show the extent to which hypertension can be directly linked to individuals developing severe COVID-19.
The findings might help to explain why ethnic minority and low-income groups have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because hypertension is more common in these individuals.
Writing in PLOS ONE, the team say people who had poorly controlled blood pressure have the highest risk of being hospitalised or dying, and that the type of medication they took to treat it did not modify the risk.
The researchers say their findings have important implications because hypertension is already the leading risk factor for death in the UK.
Lead author Holly Pavey, a British Heart Foundation (BHF) funded PhD student at the University of Cambridge, said: “By using data from many thousands of UK volunteers, we found that in individuals who tested positive for COVID-19, those with high blood pressure had a 22% higher risk of being hospitalised of dying from the virus, compared to those without high blood pressure. This risk was almost doubled for those with poorly controlled blood pressure.”
The team analysed data from the UK Biobank, which included more than 16,000 individuals who had tested positive for COVID-19 and who had linked GP records, death records and COVID-19 lab results, up to early 2021.
Senior study author Professor Ian Wilkinson, a cardiology consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and professor of therapeutics at the University of Cambridge, said: “Hypertension remains the leading risk factor for death in the UK and worldwide, despite effective treatments, and disproportionately affects low income groups and individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds.
“Our findings further emphasise the importance of adequate blood pressure control. Unfortunately, post-pandemic, the rates of blood pressure control have worsened, as have the number of people being screened and identified as having high blood pressure. This is now a major public health problem in the UK and needs to be addressed as part of the levelling-up agenda.”
A national trial – the AIM_HY_INFORM trial – is under way to improve treatments for hypertension, specifically for people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, because most treatments have been tested mainly on white people and it is not known if these are as effective on other ethnic groups.
Chief investigator Professor Phil Chowienczyk, professor of clinical cardiovascular pharmacology, Kings College London, said: “These findings highlight the importance of good blood pressure control, especially in individuals disproportionately affected by high blood pressure and COVID-19, such as those in ethnic minority groups in the UK.2
He added the findings should be published by the end of 2023 and will be instrumental in shaping new guidelines for the treatment of hypertension in the UK.
Pavey H, Kulkarni S, Wood A et al. Primary hypertension, anti-hypertensive medications and the risk of severe COVID-19 in UK Biobank. PLOS ONE 9 November 2022
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