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Association of ambient temperature and blood pressure in the Jackson Heart Study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 39, pages 415–421 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Extreme temperature events related to climate change may impact blood pressure (BP). African American populations are disproportionately affected by temperature extremes due to structural inequities. We examined the association between ambient outdoor temperature and BP among participants in JHS, a cohort of African American adults residing in the tri-county area of Jackson, Mississippi. Our primary hypothesis is that daily higher outdoor ambient temperatures would be associated with lower BP. We used a linear-mixed effects model to determine the relationship between temperature and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) at three visits (N = 5296). Participants had BP readings across three visits: Visit 1 (2000–2004), Visit 2 (2005–2008), Visit 3 (2009–2013). Cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, BP medication, sex, age, and visit number were included as adjustment variables. For every 1-degree Celsius higher average temperature from the mean, SBP was 0.11 mm Hg lower (95% CI: −0.14, −0.07, p < 0.001) in adjusted models. Similarly, for every 1-degree Celsius higher average temperature from the mean, DBP was 0.06 mm Hg lower (95% CI: −0.08, −0.04) in adjusted models. The associations were weakly curvilinear (inverted U-shape) with significant quadratic terms. This relationship was not modified by markers of socioeconomic status. This is the first study in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) to investigate the association between temperature and blood pressure. Further research is needed to explore this relationship in vulnerable populations living in areas prone to extreme temperatures.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Jackson Heart Study but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of the Jackson Heart Study.

Code availability

The code used for this paper is available upon request from the author.

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Acknowledgements

AX Tan would like to thank Paul Muntner, PhD for his prior contributions to this project. The authors also wish to thank the staffs and participants of the JHS. A prior version of this abstract was published at the American Heart Association Epi Lifestyle 2024 conference held in March 2024. The abstract is available here: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.149.suppl_1.MP74.

Funding

AX Tan and MC Odden are funded by R01-AG071019. The Jackson Heart Study (JHS) is supported and conducted in collaboration with Jackson State University (HHSN268201800013I), Tougaloo College (HHSN268201800014I), the Mississippi State Department of Health (HHSN268201800015I) and the University of Mississippi Medical Center (HHSN268201800010I, HHSN268201800011I and HHSN268201800012I) contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Annabel X. Tan & Michelle C. Odden

  2. Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Andrew Y. Chang

  3. Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Andrew Y. Chang

  4. Hypertension Laboratory, Division of Cardiology, Dept of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Daichi Shimbo

  5. Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Adam Bress

  6. Department of Social Medicine, Population, and Public Health, University of California Riverside School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, USA

    Mario Sims

Authors
  1. Annabel X. Tan
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Contributions

Annabel X. Tan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Figure preparation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing. Andrew Y. Chang: Writing - review & editing. Daichi Shimbo: Methodology, writing - review & editing. Adam Bress: Writing – review & editing. Mario Sims: Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing. Michelle C. Odden: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Annabel X. Tan.

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Tan, A.X., Chang, A.Y., Shimbo, D. et al. Association of ambient temperature and blood pressure in the Jackson Heart Study. J Hum Hypertens 39, 415–421 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-025-01026-4

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