Socioeconomic Gender Variables Impact the Association between Hypertension and Chronic Health Issues: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Our aim is to investigate if sex and gender influence the association of hypertension and their comorbidities. We investigated how gender differences in five socioeconomic factors impact the relation between hypertension and ten comorbidities including diabetes mellitus, renal disease, and chronic pulmonary disease in European countries grouped by their gender inequality index using representative survey data from the European Health Interview Survey. Using logistic regressions, we compute the ratio of odds ratios in females versus males. Therefore, an ORR > 1 is associated with a higher odds ratio for females than for males while an ORR < 1 means the opposite. To account for multiple hypothesis testing, we applied the Bonferroni correction. Hypertension in both sexes was associated with lower educational level, being unemployed, and lower income. In males, being divorced/widowed (OR1.12, p < 0.001) had an association to hypertension, whereas in females, being common-law/married (OR1.30, p < 0.001) and being divorced/widowed (OR1.17, p < 0.001) was associated with a higher risk for hypertension. Moreover, in hypertension, females who worked had an association with myocardial infarction (OR1.39, p < 0.001) and having post-secondary education had an association with arthrosis (OR 1.35, p < 0.001) compared to males. Our findings show that gender variables influence the association of hypertension and comorbidities, especially in females. These results can be used to inform targeted prevention measures taking gender-specific contextual factors into account.