High blood pressure may be experienced as a couple

Middle-aged and older heterosexual men and women may be more likely to have high blood pressure if their spouse or partner has it, too, according to a large international study.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that in up to nearly half of older couples in the United States, England, China and India both had high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. The findings highlight the potential for couples-based approaches to hypertension screening and management, researchers said.

"Many people know that high blood pressure is common in middle-aged and older adults, yet we were surprised to find that among many older couples, both husband and wife had high blood pressure," the study's senior author, Dr. Chihua Li, said in a news release. Li is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. "For instance, in the U.S., among more than 35% of couples who were ages 50 or older, both had high blood pressure."

Nearly half of all adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, according to American Heart Association statistics.

Prior studies conducted in small, regional or single-country settings have shown couples may mirror each other's blood pressure status and other diseases. But the new study is the first to look at couples in multiple high- and middle-income countries, co-author Dr. Jithin Sam Varghese said in the release. Varghese is an assistant research professor at the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta.

"We wanted to find out if many married couples who often have the same...