Association between serum liver enzymes and hypertension using propensity score matching analysis: evidence from a large kurdish prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: The association between liver enzymes and hypertension (HTN) has been reported in some studies and the findings are inconsistent. This study was conducted to evaluate the association of liver enzymes with HTN among the Iranian Kurdish population. METHODS: This prospective cohort study was a part of the 5-years (2017–2021) follow-up phase of the Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease (RaNCD) cohort study in Kermanshah province, western Iran.The association between alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glut amyl transferase (GGT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and HTN was investigated by Cox proportional-hazard model (CPHM). We used one-to-one Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis to minimize the effects of confounding factors on the relationship between liver enzymes and HTN . RESULTS: The full population included a total of 8267 participants. According to PSM, for liver enzyme GGT a total of 3664 participants were analyzed. The results of multivariate CPHM showed there is a relationship between participants with high level of GGT and had a higher risk of HTN (HR 1.34; 95% CI: 1.11–1.63). After PSM analysis, the effect of GGT on HTN remained positive and significant (HR 1.48; 95% CI: 1.22–1.78). The 5-years incidence rate of HTN in men and women were 1.27 and 0.81 (person-year), respectively.GGT had the greatest accuracy, which demonstrated an AUROC of 0.7837. CONCLUSION: Results of this study showed GGT could be a potential biomarker among liver enzymes for early detection of HTN. Therefore, monitoring GGT levels is helpful in the early detection of HTN. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-022-02884-3.