| Hypertension is a chronic condition characterized by increased systolic blood pressure and/or diastolic blood pressure. As with a number of illnesses associated with poor diet and exercise patterns, the incidence and prevalence of hypertension in the United States has increased compared to previous decades in all age groups, to the point that one third of Americans now live with hypertension (Go et al., 2011). Although it is commonly accepted that hypertension negatively impacts brain physiology, empirical investigation of the relationship between cognition and hypertension has thus far either been insufficient or produced inconsistent findings in areas such as processing speed, attention, memory, visuoconstructional ability, executive functions, and language. These inconsistent observations have mostly resulted because of methodological problems regarding blood pressure measurements, criteria for the diagnosis of hypertension, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the types of cognitive tests used. The purpose of this project was to investigate the association between hypertension and performance in processing speed, attention, memory, language, visuoconstructional abilities, and executive functions. Forty-one adults with hypertension and 42 adults without hypertension were assessed using 18 measurements of cognitive and linguistic skills. The results indicated that adults with hypertension performed significantly more poorly across several cognitive and linguistic measurements than adults without hypertension. The outcome of this study supports previous findings documenting the negative cognitive effects of hypertension (e.g., Hudak, Edwards, Athilingam, & McEvoy, 2013). In addition, this dissertation identified procedural issues that may account for some of the conflicting results in the literature, such as the use of onsite measurements of blood pressure versus a medical history of hypertension, and the importance of considering gender and education as intervening variables. The current results are relevant because awareness of chronic cognitive-linguistic decline may encourage individuals with hypertension to modify life-style factors that contribute to high blood pressure. |
