Abstract
Heterosexual couples in romantic relationships are known to influence each other's hypertension risk. However, the role of partners on an individual's hypertension status in same-sex relationships is less understood. Our objective is to characterize the burden of high blood pressure among middle-aged and older couples consisting of men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW) living in the US. Among 81 same-sex couples from the Health and Retirement Study 2006-18, 72.4% (95%CI: 23.4-95.7) MSM couples and 61.0% (95%CI: 30.4-84.8) WSW couples consisted of both partners with hypertension. Same-sex couples demonstrate high concordance of hypertension and related risk factors, suggesting a need to develop novel interventions targeting MSM and WSW couples.