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Long COVID is often associated with symptoms such as persistent fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog. But evidence increasingly shows that long COVID may have a broad effect on the cardiovascular system, as well.

Previously, our research found that long COVID was associated with higher risk of heart disease. Now, our latest study shows that people who have long COVID are at greater risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure). This risk was found even in people whose initial COVID infection was mild and did not require hospitalization.

Our study included more than 1.2 million Swedish adults aged 18 to 65 living in Stockholm County. We used data from the MIRACLE-S cohort, which tracks diagnoses, health care visits, hospitalizations and prescription information from these participants.

Participants with preexisting hypertension and those hospitalized with COVID were excluded from our analysis. This allowed us to focus on milder infections and the long-term effects COVID may have on blood pressure.

Between October 2020 and January 2025, 8,365 (0.7%) participants were diagnosed with long COVID. During follow-up, 18% of all participants were diagnosed with hypertension.

Overall, the incidence of hypertension in the long COVID group was between 22% and 23% during the follow-up period. After adjusting for other factors that may affect hypertension risk—such as age, socioeconomic status and whether a person was diagnosed with any other health conditions—this meant that people with long COVID had a 14% higher risk of hypertension than those who did not have long COVID.

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