Cardiovascular reactivity to and recovery from psychological challenge as predictors of 3-year change in blood pressure.
The authors examined whether cardiovascular reactivity to and recovery from psychological challenge predict 3-year change in blood pressure (BP) among 216 initially normotensive, community-dwelling adults. Clinic BP assessments were conducted at baseline and follow-up. BP and heart rate (HR) readings were obtained before, during, and after 5 psychological tasks at baseline. Following adjustment for traditional predictors of BP and lifestyle factors, poorer systolic BP recovery across the tasks was associated with greater 3-year increases in clinic systolic and diastolic BP. Both diastolic BP recovery and HR recovery were also related to 3-year change in clinic BP, though cardiovascular reactivity measures were not. These findings suggest that the duration of stress-related cardiovascular responses may be important for predicting longitudinal changes in BP.
Stewart
Jesse C
JC
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. stewartjc@upmc.edu
Janicki
Denise L
DL
Kamarck
Thomas W
TW
D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology