Americans saw a rise in blood pressure during the pandemic in 2020, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal Circulation. Women saw more of a rise in their blood pressure than men.

Researchers studied data from 464,585 participants, who had blood pressure measured from 2018 to 2020. Blood pressure spiked for participants in 2020 from April to December, compared to the same period in 2019. Twenty-seven percent saw their blood pressure go up significantly.

“Reasons for pandemic-associated [blood pressure] elevations are likely multifactorial, and although weight gain was not the reason, other . . . reasons could include increased alcohol consumption, less physical activity, emotional stress and less ongoing medical care [including reduced medication adherence],” according to the study.

The study warned that the “increase in systolic [blood pressure] among U.S. adults during the COVID-19 pandemic could signal a forthcoming increase in incident cardiovascular disease mortality.”

The study found that women faced higher blood pressure than men, potentially because of the added stress of unpaid labor, which women do more of compared to men.

“The finding of greater [blood pressure] increases in women, compared with men, provides more evidence of the outsized burden that pandemics place on women,” the study noted.

The pandemic has also impacted younger Americans. A survey released Monday from MTV Entertainment Group and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that 35% of Americans ages 13 to 56 cite issues related to COVID-19 as a major source of stress.

High blood pressure has long been a top health concern in the U.S. and affects almost half of all adults, and high blood pressure can lead to heart problems. In 2019, there were 659,041 deaths from heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S.

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