title: Biocultural research in global mental health: mapping idioms of distress onto blood pressure in a population survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Biocultural research remains a challenge in the field of global mental health. We sought to test associations between blood pressure and idioms of distress in a population survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  We drew on a randomly selected sample of 991 adults (498 men, 493 women) in Afghanistan, for whom physiological and psychosocial data were systematically collected. Assessment of mental health (Self-Reported Questionnaire, Afghan Symptom Checklist) included conceptualizations of distress related to pressure (fishar), anxiety, and dysphoria, as well as dimensions of negative affect and aggression. We used principal component analysis to map survey responses to fishar, and multiple regressions to examine associations with systolic/diastolic blood pressure, controlling for age, body mass index, and wealth, and differentiating by gender, mental health, and medication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Afghan sample averaged 129/80 mmHg, with 27.14% of hypertensive individuals. SBP showed inverse associations with reports of low fishar (β = -4.58, P < .001) and high fishar (β = 6.90, P < .001), as did DPB with low fishar (β = -1.55, P < .001) and high fishar (β = 3.77, P < .001). Low and high fishar responses accounted for substantial proportions of SBP data variation (R2= 20% and R2= 24%), especially in adults on blood pressure medication (R2= 58% and R2= 49%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Subjective reports of fishar map onto physiological blood pressure more robustly than other conceptualizations of mental distress related to anxiety, dysphoria, negative affect, or aggression. Our results point to the utility of mapping biological and cultural measures of stress and distress, advancing biopsychosocial understandings of wellbeing in global mental health surveys.
authors.affiliation: Anthropology Department, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Amelia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sancilio
authors.affiliation: The MacMillan Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eggerman
authors.affiliation: Anthropology Department, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Panter-Brick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000346:Afghanistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: biomarker; cultural concepts of distress; hypertension; stress