Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and risk of hypertension over 22 years in a large cohort of younger and middle-aged women.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to hypertension, but most research on PTSD and hypertension is cross-sectional, and potential mediators have not been clearly identified. Moreover, PTSD is twice as common in women as in men, but understanding of the PTSD-hypertension relationship in women is limited. We examined trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms in relation to incident hypertension over 22 years in 47 514 civilian women in the Nurses' Health Study II.

Method

We used proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for new-onset hypertension (N = 15 837).

Results

PTSD symptoms assessed with a screen were modestly associated with incident hypertension in a dose-response fashion after adjusting

SUBMITTER: Sumner JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5093068 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature