Hypertension among Polish males during the economic transition

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Polish society experienced deep political, economic and social changes. The aim of the study is to investigate whether changes that occurred in Poland during the transformation significantly influenced the risk of hypertension among adult men. We find that irrespective of age, marital status, education, degree of urbanization, lifestyle variables (smoking, drinking alcohol, and physical activity), and BMI the risk of hypertension after 1989 was higher than before transformation (odds ratio = 1.45, p < 0.001). Psychosocial factors are proposed as factors which might at least partly explain the higher risk of hypertension during the first years of economic transition in Poland.