Acute and Chronic Stress Associations With Blood Pressure: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study on an App-Based Platform

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the within-and between-person associations of acute and chronic stress with blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) using an app-based research platform. Methods: We examined data from 31,964 adults (aged 18-90 years) in an app-based ecological momentary assessment study that used a research-validated optic sensor to measure BP. Results: Within-person associations revealed that moments with (versus without) acute stress exposure were associated with higher systolic (SBP; b = 1.54) and diastolic BP (DBP; b = 0.79) and HR (b = 1.53; p values < .001). During moments with acute stress exposure, higher acute stress severity than usual was associated with higher SBP (b = 0.26), DBP (b = 0.09), and HR (b = 0.40; p values < .05). During moments without acute stress, higher background stress severity than usual was associated with higher BP and HR (SBP: b = 0.87, DBP: b = 0.51, HR: b = 0.69; p values < .001). Between-person associations showed that individuals with more frequent reports of acute stress exposure or higher chronic stress severity had higher SBP, DBP, and HR ( p values < .05). Between-person chronic stress severity moderated within-person physiological responses to stress such that individuals with higher chronic stress severity had higher average BP and HR levels but showed smaller responses to momentary stress. Conclusions: Technological advancements with optic sensors allow for large-scale physiological data collection, which provides a better understanding of how stressors of different timescales and severity contribute to momentary BP and HR in daily life.

Stress reduction experiments in daily life: Scaling from the lab to the world.

“…If they selected "no," they answered questions about stress, perceived coping, and positive emotions in the same manner as in Studies 1-2. In the majority of check-ins (.84%), people selected "no," so consistent with previous papers, our analyses focused on the latter questions (Mak et al, 2023;Newman et al, 2023;Park et al, 2023).…”

“…Participants were volunteers who downloaded an app called MyBPLab (https://mybplab.com) from the Google Play Store on their Samsung phone and agreed to participate in a 3-week study about people’s stress, emotional experiences, HR, and blood pressure. These data from MyBPLab were collected as part of a larger project, and some additional papers that address distinct questions from the present study have been published previously (Don et al, 2023; Mak et al, 2023; Newman, Gordon, & Mendes, 2021; Newman et al, 2023; Park et al, 2023). As part of the study, they received notifications to complete three check-ins per day (once in the morning, afternoon, and evening).…”

Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body’s restorative capacity.

“…Research also shows that experiencing daily stressors leads to heightened daily physiological arousal. Mak et al (2023) published results from a large ecological momentary assessment study of 32,169 adults, with nearly 500,000 momentary responses, using both self-report items and physiology collected via optic sensors in a watch or smartphone. Analyses of these data found that participants with more frequent reports of daily stressors had higher than average heart rate and blood pressure across 3 weeks.…”