OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory chronic conditions (ICCs) are risk factors for elevated blood pressure (BP) through inflammatory pathways. However, the factors, prevalence, and association of BP control in adults with ICCs and hypertension are largely unknown.

METHODS: We used multiple cross-sectional cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2013-2018) data. Adults (> 18 years) with self-reported hypertension and those who participated in the examination component were included in the study (N = 6,117). High BP was defined as having systolic BP >130 mm Hg or diastolic BP > 80 mm Hg. Adults with any of the following chronic conditions asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, chronic kidney diseases, depression, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis, gout, and diabetes were considered as having ICC. Because of significant differences in the profiles of those with and without ICC, we used inverse probability weighting (IPW) to account for the selection bias. For example, a higher percentage of adults with any ICC used antihypertensive medications compared to no ICC (84.7% vs 62.5%). IPW-adjusted multivariable logistic regression on high BP was controlled for sex, age in years, race/ethnicity, education, income, marital status, insurance coverage, BMI, smoking status, exercise, general health, and polypharmacy.

RESULTS: Overall, 55.6% of adults reported a high BP; A lower percentage of adults with ICC reported high BP (54.6% vs. 56.9%) compared to those without ICC. IPW-adjusted logistic regressions indicated that adults with any ICC had lower odds of high BP (AOR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.72, 0.96, p < 0.011) compared to those with no ICC.

CONCLUSIONS: One in two adults with hypertension reported high BP. Adults with self-reported hypertension and ICC were less likely to have high BP compared to those without ICC. Future studies with prospective cohort design are needed to confirm these findings.