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Low blood pressure associated with low mood: a red herring?
N Donner-Banzhoff1, Y Chan, J P Szalai
1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, North York, Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
Several reports have discussed a relationship between blood pressure (BP) and psychological well-being scales. Lower BP readings were associated with higher levels of psychological distress and fatigue. This study sought to replicate the association found by previous secondary analyses of epidemiological surveys.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Academic Family Medicine Department in Toronto, Canada.
Subjects:
214 practice attenders. STUDY MEASURES: Extent of psychological abnormalities with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), self-reported fatigue, in-clinic and home BP measurements.
Results:
No significant relationship between blood pressure levels and GHQ-score or fatigue could be demonstrated. This applies to clinic and home measurements for systolic and diastolic pressure. Neither adjustment for age or sex nor for several confounders through multiple linear regression produced significant associations in the postulated direction. No nonlinear relationship could be shown either. The study had a power of 95% to detect a correlation of r = 0.22 (alpha = 0.05, one-sided).
Conclusion:
The study specifically addressing the possible link between blood pressure and psychological dysfunction/fatigue, could not confirm the previously reported association. Problems related to type-I error in epidemiological research are discussed.
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