Prevalence and associated factors of inter-arm blood pressure difference in Chinese community hypertensive population

ABSTRACT

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of inter-arm blood pressure difference (IAD) in Chinese community hypertensive population.

Methods

The cross-sectional study included 7788 hypertensive patients (3673 male and 4115 female, aged 62.3 ± 13.6 years) in Guangdong, China. IAD was defined as the absolute value of blood pressure (BP) difference between left and right arms. Bilateral BP was measured simultaneously by automated devices.

Results

The mean IAD was 4.04 ± 4.33 mm Hg in systolic and 3.19 ± 3.43 mm Hg in diastolic. The prevalence rates of systolic IAD (sIAD)≥5 mm Hg and ≥10 mmHg were 28.9% (n = 2247) and 12.8% (n = 996), respectively. By univariate linear regression, higher sIAD correlated with aging, higher SBP, higher DBP, lower baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and anti-hypertensive medication (p < 0.05). In multivariate linear regression analysis, higher sIAD was significantly associated with systolic BP (SBP, β = 0.033; 95%CI, 0.025–0.041; p < 0.001), triacylglycerol (β = 0.093; 95%CI, 0.017–0.169; p = 0.016), total cholesterol (β = −0.202; 95%CI, −0.396to −0.009; p = 0.04), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; β = 0.304; 95%CI, 0.027–0.582; p = 0.032).

Conclusion

The elevated prevalence of large IAD was shown in hypertensive population. Meanwhile, higher levels of SBP, triacylglycerol, total cholesterol, LDL-C, and lower eGFR were associated with higher sIAD.

KEYWORDS:

• Inter-arm blood pressure difference
• hypertension
• prevalence
• associated factor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the participants and medical staff who contributed to this study.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province under Grant No. 2020A1515010738; the Science and Technology Plan Program of Guangzhou under Grant No. 201604020143, No. 201604020018, No.201604020186 and No. 201803040012; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFC1307603, No.2016YFC1301305; and the Key Area R&D Program of Guangdong Province under Grant No. 2019B020227005.