Health-related quality of life and hypertension status, awareness, treatment, and control: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2004

Objective We examined health-related quality of life measures by hypertension status, awareness, treatment, and control. Methods Five unfavorable health-related quality of life measures were analyzed among 8303 adults aged 20 years or older who participated in the 2001–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Multivariable logistic regression analyses examined differences in health-related quality of life with adjustment for age, race, sex, healthcare coverage, and other medical conditions. Results The 30% of respondents with hypertension were more likely to report fair or poor health status (adjusted odds ratio 1.72, 95% confidence interval 1.44–2.05), 14 or more unhealthy days in the past 30 days (1.23, 1.06–1.43), 14 or more physically unhealthy days (1.39, 1.15–1.67), and 14 or more activity-limited days (1.55, 1.17–2.04) than those without hypertension. Among adults with hypertension, the 73.2% who were aware of their condition were more likely to report fair or poor health status (2.19, 1.54–3.12), 14 or more unhealthy days (1.53, 1.12–2.09), 14 or more physically unhealthy days (1.49, 1.10–2.03), 14 or more mentally unhealthy days (1.70, 1.05–2.75), and 14 or more activity-limited days (2.38, 1.39–4.05) than those who were unaware. Among those aware they had hypertension, 14 or more physically unhealthy days (0.50, 0.28–0.90) was associated with current treatment. Health-related quality of life measures did not differ by blood pressure control status. Conclusions Having hypertension and being aware of it was related to lower health-related quality of life. Antihypertensive medication was associated with more physically unhealthy days, while there were no differences in health-related quality of life by control status. Further study is needed to examine these differences including: disease severity, sex and racial/ethnic differences, comorbidities not examined, and impact of health-related quality of life and its changes on outcomes.