Cardiovascular reactivity to work stress predicts subsequent onset of hypertension: the Air Traffic Controller Health Change Study.
OBJECTIVE
The hypothesis that increased blood pressure reactivity to stress is an early risk marker of hypertension was tested in a 1994 follow-up of the 1974 to 1978 Air Traffic Controller Health Change Study sample.


METHODS
Assessments in 1974 to 1978 included physical examinations and recordings (every 20 minutes for 5 hours) of both workload (planes within controller airspace) and blood pressure reactivity. Individual differences in reactivity were used to predict 1994 self-report of ever having been told by a physician to take antihypertensive medication, assessed in a telephone survey of 218 respondents who were normotensive or stage 1 hypertensive in 1974 to 1978.


RESULTS
Each SD increase in baseline systolic reactivity was associated with a 1.7 (p <.019) increase in the relative-odds of 1994 hypertension, after controlling for age, body mass index, and clinic systolic and diastolic blood pressure at clinical examination, with effects comparable for baseline normotensives and stage 1 hypertensives.


CONCLUSIONS
A 20-year follow-up of originally normotensive and stage I hypertensive workers suggests that increased systolic blood pressure reactivity to work stress is associated with long-term risk of hypertension.
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Eileen E
EE
Ming
Gail K
GK
Adler
Ronald C
RC
Kessler
Louis F
LF
Fogg
Karen A
KA
Matthews
J Alan
JA
Herd
Robert M
RM
Rose
D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D015415:Biomarkers; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011336:Probability; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*
D015415:Biomarkers