Daily spiritual experiences, systolic blood pressure, and hypertension among midlife women in SWAN.
BACKGROUND
There is reasonable evidence that religious beliefs and activities are associated with lower blood pressure and less hypertension. It is not known if daily spiritual experiences have similar effects.


OBJECTIVE
We examined the relationship between an eight-item version of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and hypertension.


METHODS
With data from 1,060 Caucasian and 598 African-American midlife women participating in Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, in race-stratified models, we used regression equations, logistic regression, and mixed effects regression to estimate the relationship between DSES group and SBP and hypertensive status.


RESULTS
We found little difference across DSES groups in adjusted mean SBP for either Caucasian or African-American women. Nor did DSES protect against 3-year increases in SBP, hypertensive status, or incident hypertension.


CONCLUSIONS
Daily spiritual experiences do not appear protective for SBP or hypertension in midlife women. Further research should examine factors that condition the religion-BP relationship.
Fitchett
George
G
Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA. george_fitchett@rush.edu
Powell
Lynda H
LH
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D029181:Spirituality; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health