Increased risk of hypertension in patients with anxiety disorders: A population-based study

• The prevalence of hypertension in anxiety was higher than the general population.
• The incidence of hypertension in anxiety was higher than the general population.
• Age, male sex, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia had risk for hypertension in anxiety.

ObjectiveWe designed this study to examine the prevalence and incidence of hypertension and risk factors in patients with anxiety disorders.MethodsThe National Health Research Institute provided a database of 1,000,000 random subjects for study. We obtained a random sample of 766,427 subjects aged ≥ 18 years in 2005. The differences in the prevalence of hypertension between patients with anxiety disorders and the general population in 2005 were tested by multiple logistic regression adjusted for other covariates, including age, sex, insurance amount, region, urbanicity and depression. The differences in the incidence of hypertension between patients with anxiety disorders and the general population according to age group and sex from 2006 to 2010 were tested by a Cox regression adjusted for the other covariates.ResultsThe prevalence of hypertension in patients with anxiety disorders was higher than that in the general population (37.9% vs. 12.4%, odds ratio, 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 2.52–2.70) in 2005. The average annual incidence of hypertension in patients with anxiety disorders from 2006 to 2010 was also higher than that in the general population (3.63% vs. 1.95%, risk ratio, 1.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.23–1.36). Compared with the general population, patients with anxiety disorders had a higher incidence of hypertension in all age and sex groups.ConclusionsPatients with anxiety disorders had a higher prevalence and a higher incidence of hypertension than that in the general population. Age, male sex, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia were risk factors for hypertension in patients with anxiety disorders.