Habitual salt preference worsens blood pressure in hospitalized hypertensive patients with omicron infection under epidemic-related stress.

Background: We investigated the synergistic effect of stress and habitual salt preference (SP) on blood pressure (BP) in the hospitalized Omicron-infected patients.

Methods: From 15,185 hospitalized Omicron-infected patients who reported having high BP or hypertension, we recruited 662 patients. All patients completed an electronic questionnaire on diet and stress, and were required to complete morning BP monitoring at least three times.