Association between prehypertension and psychological distress among adults in Saudi Arabia: A population-based survey

Jamaan Al-Zahrani; Mamdouh M Shubair; Khaled K Aldossari; Sameer Al-Ghamdi; Raseel Alroba; Anas Khaled Alsuraimi; Khadijah Angawi; Ashraf El-Metwally

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.06.014

Association between prehypertension and psychological distress among adults in Saudi Arabia: A population-based survey

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Oct;28(10):5657-5661. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.06.014. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Authors

Jamaan Al-Zahrani¹, Mamdouh M Shubair², Khaled K Aldossari¹, Sameer Al-Ghamdi¹, Raseel Alroba³, Anas Khaled Alsuraimi⁴, Khadijah Angawi⁵, Ashraf El-Metwally³

Affiliations

¹ Family & Community Medicine Department, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia.
² School of Health Sciences, University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada.
³ College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Health Services and Hospital Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: Prehypertension is a precursor to hypertension status. Psychological distress has been identified earlier among hypertensives; however, there is little evidence for the presumptive relationship between prehypertension and psychological distress.

Objective: The study aimed to assess the psychological wellbeing of the Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia population, using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and correlating it with prehypertensive patients in the same population.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of the population of Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, was carried out between January and June of 2016. With an 85 percent response rate, a total of 1016 participants participated in the study. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between prehypertension and psychological distress.

Results: The findings of the adjusted analysis demonstrated that, on average prehypertensive patients were more distressed psychologically than non-hypertensive patients (unstandardized Beta regression coefficient = 3.600; P-value 0.025). Similarly, on average women were found to be more psychologically distressed than men (unstandardized Beta = 1.511, P-value 0.002). Civil workers and unemployed individuals were more psychologically distressed than employed individuals (unstandardized Beta = 1.326, P-value 0.041) while adjusting for the sociodemographic and other variables such as BMI, diabetes status, cholesterol, and smoking status.

Conclusion: The current study shows that as compared to normotensive patients, self-rated mental wellbeing and psychological wellbeing are all considerably poorer among prehypertensive patients. To prevent individuals from having negative psychological outcomes and their long-term complications, the Government of Saudi Arabia needs to concentrate on prehypertensive, female, and unemployed individuals. Well-designed longitudinal studies, primarily in Saudi Arabia, are needed in the future to research the cause and impact of poor mental health and prehypertension.

Keywords: General health questionnaire-12; Prehypertension; Psychological distress; Saudi Arabia.