Health-related quality of life of hypertension in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Many observational studies have shown a lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of hypertension patients. This study aimed to summarize the association between hypertension and HRQOL in the Chinese population.

Methods: We systematically searched the observational studies in the following databases: Medline, PubMed, Embase, Science Citation Index, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP and WanFang Data from 1 January 1990 to 1 October 2017.

Results: A total of 33 studies were included in this systematic review. Twenty-one of them presented worse quality of life in hypertensive individuals. The meta-analysis showed lower scores in hypertensive individuals for the eight domains and physical components (-4.93; 95% confidence interval -8.40 to -1.47), and no statistical difference in mental components (-1.62; 95% confidence interval -4.26 to 1.02).

Conclusions: Among Chinese patients, HRQOL of hypertensive patients is worse than that of normotensive individuals. These data suggest that maintenance of normotension offers benefits on patient-centered outcomes, in addition to other well established cardiovascular benefits.