RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the relationship between alcohol dependence and new detected hypertension in adult residents of Xuzhou city.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Participants were sampled by stratified multi-stage randomly cluster sampling method from February 2013 to June 2013 among permanent residents aged 18 and more in Xuzhou city. The alcohol dependence was defined with Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST). Other information was obtained by questionnaire. Spearman correlation analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to identify the relationship between alcohol dependence and new detected hypertension.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The alcohol dependence rate was 11.56% on the whole cohort (n=36 157), and 22.02%(3 854/17 501) for male and 1.74%(324/18 656) for female(P<0.01). The new detected hypertension rate was 9.46%(3 422/36 157) in the whole cohort. The new detected hypertension rate increased in proportion with the severity of alcohol dependence (P<0.01). Spearman correlation analysis showed that alcohol dependence was positively correlated with systemic blood pressure(r=0.071, P<0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.077, P<0.01). After adjusting for gender, age, marital status, body mass index, smoking status, physical activity level, educational level, income level and region, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that alcohol dependence was an independent risk factor for hypertension (low alcohol dependence: OR=1.44, 95%CI 1.14-1.81, P<0.01; light alcohol dependence: OR=1.35, 95%CI 1.11-1.64, P<0.01; medium alcohol dependence: OR=1.83, 95%CI 1.40-2.41, P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The alcohol dependence is an independent risk factor for new detected hypertension in adult residents of Xuzhou city. Intensive hypertension prevention and treatment strategies should be performed on this population based on our results.</p>