Investigating the Effect of Hypertension on Happiness and Quality of Life in a Population from Shiraz

Background: People's lives have become full of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in the recent years. This situation mainly originates from life style changes, which affect individuals' health particularly in developing countries. Nutritional transition in terms of high consumption of fast foods and low intake of fruits and vegetables beside insufficient physical activity and sedentary jobs are the potent factors that facilitate the occurrence of diverse disorders. Hypertension is among the most concerning disorders, which affects both physical and mental aspects of health. Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the effects of hypertension, as one of the growing risk factors for diverse disorders, on quality of life. Patients and Methods: In this study, 200 individuals who had referred to Shiraz Healthy Heart House and Imam Reza clinic were selected by convenient sampling. Based on their history of hypertension, relevant therapies, and measurement of blood pressure at the time of enrollment, the participants were allocated to case and control groups. In addition to a general demographic questionnaire, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was utilized in order to estimate the participants' happiness status and quality of life. Different statistical methods were used to check the normal distribution of the data and compare the means. Results: The mean score of happiness showed that hypertensive individuals suffered from lower happiness levels compared to those with normal blood pressure (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Not only hypertension imposes serious side effects on different body systems, but it also decreases the quality of life. As many underlying causes of impaired blood pressure are related to lifestyle, it could be easily prevented by addressing the modifiable risk factors.