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The following is a summary of “Association of modifiable risk factors and infectious diseases among individuals with hypertension: a prospective cohort study,” published in the October 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Hu et al.
The associations between combined modifiable risk factors and infectious diseases among individuals with hypertension were not well understood.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the relationship between lifestyle behaviors, cardiometabolic factors, with the risk of infectious diseases among patients with hypertension and to assess the blood biomarkers that mediated the associations.
They examined 1,47,188 UK Biobank participants with hypertension, using complete data on modifiable risk factors. A health score was created using 8 modifiable risk factors, with 4 lifestyle behaviors (diet, physical activity, smoking, and sleep duration) and cardiometabolic factors (body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure). The health score and infectious diseases were calculated by Cox proportional regression analysis with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. A mediation analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of blood biomarkers on intermediation.
The results showed that over a median of 12.5 years, 27,398 individuals with infectious diseases were identified, including 960 respiratory infections and 7,940 digestive infections. After adjusting for confounding factors, the HR for the highest vs the lowest health score quartile was 0.64 (0.62, 0.66) for all infectious diseases, 0.72 (0.60, 0.86) for respiratory infections, and 0.66 (0.62, 0.71) for digestive infections. Factors such as the duration of hypertension did not alter the relationship between the health score and infectious diseases and, biomarkers like inflammation and renal function explained 46.60% of the connection between combined lifestyle factors and infectious disease risk with hypertension.
They concluded that management of combined modifiable risk factors was associated with lower risks of infectious diseases and might produce profound changes in blood biomarkers among individuals with hypertension. Also, specific biomarkers appeared to serve as an intermediate between combined lifestyle factors and infectious diseases.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-10064-1
