title: Life events and hemodynamic stress reactivity in the middle-aged and elderly.
abstract: Recent versions of the reactivity hypothesis, which consider it to be the product of stress exposure and exaggerated hemodynamic reactions to stress that confers cardiovascular disease risk, assume that reactivity is independent of the experience of stressful life events. This assumption was tested in two substantial cohorts, one middle-aged and one elderly. Participants had to indicate from a list of major stressful life events up to six they had experienced in the previous 2 years. They were also asked to rate how disruptive and stressful they were, at the time of occurrence and now. Blood pressure and pulse rate were measured at rest and in response to acute mental stress. Those who rated the events as highly disruptive at the time of exposure and now exhibited blunted systolic blood pressure reactions to acute stress. The present results suggest that acute stress reactivity may not be independent of stressful life events experience.
authors.affiliation: School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ring
authors.forename: Geoff
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Der
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hunt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology