Association of hypertension and depression with mortality: an exploratory study with interaction and mediation models

The association of hypertension and depression with mortality has not been fully understood. We aimed to explore the possible independent or joint association of hypertension and depression with mortality. Their interaction effects on mortality and possible mediating role were also investigated. Associations of hypertension, depression, and their interaction with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality were evaluated using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models. The mediation analysis was conducted with a Sobel test. A total of 35152 participants were included in the final analysis. Hypertension and depression were independently associated with increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. The co-existence of hypertension and depression resulted in a 1.7-fold [95