Prevalence of Essential Hypertension and Its Complications Among Chinese Population at High Altitude

Yue Le, Zhiqing Fan, Lin Sun, Wei Feng, and Jingjie Li. Prevalence of essential hypertension and its complications among Chinese population at high altitude. High Alt Med Biol. 18:140–144, 2017. Objectives: This study examined the prevalence of essential hypertension (EH) and its complications among Chinese population at different altitude regions in Qinghai province. Methods: This cross-sectional analysis used data from 2000 residents living in the area with two different latitudes for more than 20 years, using 1:1 pairing mode. The EH patients above were, respectively, found in these two groups by blood osmotic pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG). Then, the plasma renin activity (PRA), urinary albumin, urine protein in 24 hours, urine and blood osmotic pressure, coronary angiography, and cardinal enzyme were measured. Results: The prevalence of hypertension in the highlander (36.3%) was significantly higher than that in the lowlander (19.6%) [OR = 1.85; 95% CI 1.29–2.41; p = 0.015], in which the EH patients in the highlander (20.8%) was also much higher than that in the lowlander (8.4%) (OR = 2.48; 95% CI 1.64–3.32; p = 0.002). Considering the age and gender, the prevalence of EH was higher in the subjects who were men and older than 50 years in both the highlander and lowlander (p < 0.05). The concentration of urinary microalbumin, PRA, cardinal enzyme, and the abnormal occurrence rate of ECG and coronary angiography among EH patients in the highlander was higher than those in the lowlander (p < 0.05), while the urine/blood osmotic pressure ratio in the highlander was lower than that in the lowlander (p < 0.001). Positive correlations were also shown between the blood pressure and renal injury (r = 0.462, p < 0.05) or coronary heart disease (r = 0.353, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of EH and its complications such as renal injury and coronary heart disease were all higher in the highlander.