Evaluation of Serum Magnesium Levels in Patients with Hypertension: A Case-control Study

There are conflicting data on the effects of magnesium on hypertension in the literature. Therefore we aim this study to investigate whether there is a relationship between serum magnesium levels and hypertension in newly diagnosed. This is a case-control study. The patients were selected from the records of patients who applied to the family medicine outpatient clinic between June 2016 and May 2017. A total of 276 patients, 68 patients with newly diagnosed hypertension in the case group and 208 patients without any disease in the control group were included in the study. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed between the case and control groups. The odds ratio for magnesium was 0.1 (0.012-0.810). When the value of the magnesium variable increases by 1mg/dl, the risk of hypertension decreases by 90%. However, in the presence of magnesium as an independent variable, the predictability rate of our model was expected to increase but decreased. The odds ratio for age was 1.14 (1.092-1.186). The odds ratio for exercise was 0.18 (0.03-0.99). The odds ratio for glucose was 1.03 (1.001-1.065). In our study that magnesium deficiency causes an increased risk of hypertension, the predictability rate of our model was expected to increase instead of decrease. These findings show that a cause-effect approach or incidental association cannot explain the relationship between magnesium and hypertension.