Changes in health behaviors following a hypertension diagnosis: the korean genome and epidemiology study (2003-2018)

Objective: The management of hypertension requires a healthy lifestyle. However, it is unclear if individuals change their health behaviors after being diagnosed with hypertension. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the changes in smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and obesity following hypertension diagnosis using data from a community-based cohort. Design and method: We analyzed 5091 participants without hypertension at baseline from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study between 2003 and 2018. Participants were classified into the hypertension diagnosis group if they were diagnosed with hypertension by a physician during follow-up. Biennial health check-ups were used to measure health behaviors including smoking, drinking, exercise, and obesity. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess the differences by group and time and group-by-time interactions. Results: The group diagnosed with hypertension was more obese than the group not diagnosed with hypertension (p < 0.001). However, smoking (p < 0.001) and alcohol consumption (p < 0.001) decreased over time in all participants, and exercise (p < 0.001) increased. A group-by-time interaction was observed for smoking, with the group diagnosed with hypertension exhibiting greater reductions in smoking over time (p = 0.005). There were no significant interactions found for other behaviors. Conclusions: Our study provides limited evidence that a hypertension diagnosis alone may not be enough to encourage behavior change, except for smoking reduction. Thus, strategies to motivate behavior change need to be identified, given the importance of a healthy lifestyle in hypertension management.