Abstract:
Background Previous studies have shown that bisphenol A exposure is associated with the risk of hypertension; however, most of them are cross-sectional and the conclusions are not consistent.
Objective To evaluate the association between bisphenol A exposure and the incident risk of hypertension.
Methods Based on a nested case-control design involving 1990 subjects derived from the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort, a total of 1080 subjects were included in this study after excluding 887 hypertensive cases at baseline and 23 subjects with missing blood pressure data in follow-up visits. Epidemiological information was collected through questionnaire survey, and serum bisphenol A concentration was detected by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the potential association between serum bisphenol A level and the risk of hypertension incidence, and linear regression model was used to analyze the association between serum bisphenol A level and blood pressure changes between baseline and follow-up.
Results The average age of the 1 080 participants was (62.03±7.45) years, of which 41.1% were male. During the follow-up period, a total of 477 (44.2%) developed hypertension. The median serum concentration of bisphenol A in the total population was 3.15 μg·L−1, and the baseline bisphenol A concentration in the new case group (3.24 μg·L−1) was higher than that in the control group (2.98 μg·L−1) (P<0.05). After adjustment for selected covariates, the risk of hypertension increased by 12% (OR=1.12, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.22) for each unit increase in naturally log-transformed bisphenol A; the systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure increased by 1.88 (95%CI: 1.08, 2.69) mmHg and 1.14 (95%CI: 0.68, 1.61) mmHg, respectively. Compared with the low bisphenol A tertile group, the risk of hypertension in the middle tertile and high tertile groups increased by 39% (OR=1.39, 95%CI: 1.01, 1.91) and 40% (OR=1.40, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.93) respectively; the systolic blood pressure increased by 5.91 (95%CI: 3.06, 8.76) mmHg and 5.71 (95%CI: 2.82, 8.59) mmHg, and the diastolic blood pressure increased by 3.09 (95%CI: 3.06, 8.59) mmHg and 2.89 (95%CI: 1.22, 4.57) mmHg, respectively (Ptrend<0.001). A positive association between serum bisphenol A level and hypertension was found among those who were female, never/former smokers, never/former drinkers, without family history of hypertension, with physical exercise, and with prehypertension at baseline (Ptrend<0.05). There was no interaction between selected stratified variables and bisphenol A levels on hypertension (Pinteraction>0.05).
Conclusion Bisphenol A exposure is positively associated with the risk of hypertension.