Blood pressure in young adulthood and later disability pension. A population‐based study on 867 672 men from Sweden

Hypertension is a common chronic condition and can lead to an economic burden for society because of the costs of treatment for high blood pressure and most likely also because of disabilities related to hypertension and its co-morbidities. The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent moderate/severe hypertension in young adulthood increases the risk of becoming a disability pensioner later in life. All Swedish men born 1951 to 1970, who had their systolic blood pressure measured at age 18-19 years in the compulsory military conscription examination were followed from 1990 to 2001 with respect to receiving disability pension. Among 867 672 men (84.3% of the target population), the hazard ratio was 1.33 (95% CI 1.15-1.52) for being granted disability pension because of moderate/severe hypertension compared with men with normal systolic blood pressure after adjustment for conscription centre, body mass index and socio-economic conditions in childhood and adulthood. Men with mild hypertension had also an increased hazard ratio (1.09, 95% CI 1.05-1.13) compared with men with normal systolic blood pressure. This study showed that hypertension in young adulthood increased the risk of disability pension in later life.