Association between lung function, hypertension and blood pressure medication

Several studies showed an association between lung function and hypertension. However, it must be considered that antihypertensive treatment might have an effect on lung function, too. So far, this potential effect of antihypertensive medication on lung function has been investigated mainly in patients with already existing pulmonary diseases. Thus, the aim of this analysis was to determine whether hypertension and its medical treatment are associated with lung function impairment in a general adult population.

Within the cross-sectional study ECRHS-I Erfurt 1158 adults aged between 20 and 65 years performed lung function tests and blood pressure measurements. Additionally, information on anthropometric measurements, sociodemographic characteristics and medical history was available. Multivariate regression models were applied to study the association between lung function, blood pressure and antihypertensive treatment.

The combination of high blood pressure and the use of antihypertensive medication had the strongest negative effect on lung function. Thus, it was associated with a deterioration in FEV(1) of -150 ml (p=0.01) and in FVC of -190 ml (p<0.01). When using both high blood pressure and antihypertensive medication as individual variables in one regression model, only medication decreased FEV(1) and FVC significantly (each p<0.01).

We speculate that high blood pressure in combination with antihypertensive treatment and not HBP itself might be associated with reduced lung function in a general adult population. Nevertheless, it must be considered that antihypertensive medication might just be an indicator for very high blood pressure.