title: Increased blood pressure reactions to acute mental stress are associated with 16-year cardiovascular disease mortality.
abstract: Exaggerated cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress may be involved in the etiology of cardiovascular pathology. The present analysis examined the association between the magnitude of systolic and diastolic blood pressure reactions to stress and cardiovascular disease mortality. Participants were 431 (229 women) from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, aged 63 years at the time of stress testing, where blood pressure was measured during resting baseline and mental arithmetic stress. Participants' vital status was tracked for the next 16 years, during which time 38 had died of cardiovascular disease. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure reactions were positively associated with cardiovascular disease mortality. This association could reflect the long-term erosive effects of exaggerated reactivity on the vasculature as well as its short-term capacity to trigger acute cardiovascular events.
authors.affiliation: School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, UK.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: Annie T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Ginty
authors.forename: Geoff
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Der
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benzeval
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D016019:Survival Analysis