Relationship between self-perceived stress and blood pressure

Abstract

Objective: The importance of stress in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension is controversial. In this study we wanted to evaluate the relation between self-perceived stress and the blood pressure (BP) in a asymptomatic healthy population.Subjects and methods: A total of 1666 guests (mean ± s.d. age 50 ± 16 years) attending the air show AIR94 in Buochs, Switzerland volunteered to participate in a cross-sectional study. Using a self-administered questionnaire and visual analogue scales the individual stress perception and other cardiovascular risk behaviours/factors were assessed. BP, body weight, height, and the waist:hip ratio were measured.Results: Individual stress perception was inversely related with the systolic BP (SBP) (r = −0.12, P < 0.001). the relationship was found in both men and women and was independent of age and/or body weight. no relation was found between the diastolic bp (dbp) and stress perception. subjects with high normal bp according the jnc v classification showed a lower stress perception than did subjects with normal bp. in a multiple regression model the stress score was fourth most predictive of the sbp after body mass index, waist:hip ratio, and age followed by alcohol and fat intake.Conclusion: In this study we found an inverse association between the self-perceived stress and SBP. We suggest that the inverse association between BP and the self-perceived stress reflects a neuroendocrine and biochemical setting characterized by inadequate stress handling associated with a higher fat and alcohol intake and more abdominal fat tissue leading to a higher BP. Our data suggest that stress denial in combination with abdominal obesity, alcohol consumption, and smoking may be proxy for a high stress level.