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Association between sleep disorders and hypertension in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 31, pages 220–224 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

There is insufficient evidence to assess the risk for hypertension in patients with sleep disorders (SDs) in a large population-based cohort study. The aim of this study was to examine the risk of hypertension in groups both with and without SDs. Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) data from 2005 to 2010 were used in a retrospective cohort study. A Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to evaluate the effects of SDs on hypertension risk. The overall incidence of hypertension was 120.7 per 1000 person-years for patients with SDs, which was significantly higher than that of the non-SD comparison cohort (76.4 per 1000 person-years). Overall, patients with SDs had a higher risk of hypertension compared with comparison cohort (adjusted hazard ratio (HR)=1.58, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.26-1.79). Among patients aged <40 years, patients with SDs had a higher risk for hypertension than the comparison cohort (adjusted HR, 2.90 (95% CI, 2.46–3.14)). Compared with the cohort without insomnia, patients with insomnia had a 21% higher risk for hypertension (adjusted HR, 1.21 (95% CI, 1.01–1.76)). Compared with non-SD comparison cohort, patients with SDs had a higher risk for developing hypertension, particularly pronounced among those who were younger adults (age ⩽40 years) and who had insomnia. We suggest that possible persisting exposure to sleep problems was correlated with a greater risk of hypertension.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Health Research Institute in Taiwan for providing the insurance claims data.

Author contributions

Conception and design by C-LL and W-CC. Administrative support, collection and assembly of data, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing and final approval of manuscript by all authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    C-L Lin

  2. Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    T-C Liu

  3. School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    F-H Lin & W-C Chien

  4. Taiwanese Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Association, Taipei, Taiwan

    C-H Chung

  5. Department of Medical Research 7115R, National Defense Medical Center, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    W-C Chien

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  1. C-L Lin
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Correspondence to W-C Chien.

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Lin, CL., Liu, TC., Lin, FH. et al. Association between sleep disorders and hypertension in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study. J Hum Hypertens 31, 220–224 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2016.55

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