Health-related quality of life and hypertension status, awareness, treatment, and control: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001--2004.

Abstract

We examined health-related quality of life measures by hypertension status, awareness, treatment, and control. Five unfavorable health-related quality of life measures were analyzed among 8303 adults aged 20 years or older who participated in the 2001--2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Multivariable logistic regression analyses examined differences in health-related quality of life with adjustment for age, race, sex, healthcare coverage, and other medical conditions. The 30% of respondents with hypertension were more likely to report fair or poor health status (adjusted odds ratio 1.72, 95% confidence interval 1.44-2.05), 14 or more unhealthy days in the past 30 days (1.23, 1.06-1.43), 14 or more physically unhealthy days (1.39, 1.15-1.67), and 14 or more activity-limited days (1.55, 1.17-2.04) than those without hypertension. Among adults with hypertension, the 73.2% who were aware of their condition were more likely to report fair or poor health status (2.19, 1.54-3.12), 14 or more unhealthy days (1.53, 1.12-2.09), 14 or more physically unhealthy days (1.49, 1.10-2.03), 14 or more mentally unhealthy days (1.70, 1.05-2.75), and 14 or more activity-limited days (2.38, 1.39-4.05) than those who were unaware. Among those aware they had hypertension, 14 or more physically unhealthy days (0.50, 0.28-0.90) was associated with current treatment. Health-related quality of life measures did not differ by blood pressure control status. Having hypertension and being aware of it was related to lower health-related quality of life. Antihypertensive medication was associated with more physically unhealthy days, while there were no differences in health-related quality of life by control status. Further study is needed to examine these differences including: disease severity, sex and racial/ethnic differences, comorbidities not examined, and impact of health-related quality of life and its changes on outcomes.