Association of psychological stress with wives’ hypertension across over 10 million Chinese married female population aged 20–49 years

Abstract. Background:. Psychological stress has been reported to be a potential risk factor for hypertension among females, but it remains unclear whether spousal chronic stress levels alter the risk of hypertension among women. We examined the associations between stress within the family and hypertension among married women. Methods:. Reproductive-aged women who were planning for pregnancy and their husbands were recruited from the National Free Pre-pregnancy Checkup Projects (NFPCP) across 31 provinces in China in 2016 and 2017. Perceived stress of wives or husbands was measured with a 5-point Likert-type scale, and assessed from three domains: work/life-related stress, economic stress, and overall stress. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between stress status and the prevalence of hypertension. Results:. Of 10,027,644 couples, 261,098 (2.60%) women had hypertension. The results showed that higher stress levels among themselves or their husbands were associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension in women (Pfor trend