Impact of a Workplace Stress Reduction Program on Blood Pressure and Emotional Health in Hypertensive Employees

Abstract

Results suggest that a brief workplace stress management intervention can produce clinically significant reductions in BP and improve emotional health among hypertensive employees. Implications are that such interventions may produce a healthier and more productive workforce, enhancing performance and reducing losses to the organization resulting from cognitive decline, illness, and premature mortality.

New Hope for Correctional Officers: An Innovative Program for Reducing Stress and Health Risks

“…Heart rate, systolic, and diastolic blood pressure were also significantly reduced in the experimental group but not in the control group. We anticipated blood pressure reductions in employees who had elevated blood pressure based on findings from previous studies (Barrios-Choplin et al 1997;McCraty et al 2003), however, this study also demonstrated significant reductions in blood pressure in the experimental group as a whole, which supports the perspective that the program reduced the officers' overall stress levels.…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that these techniques favorably impact physiological balance by reducing sympathetic arousal, increasing parasympathetic activity Tiller et al 1996), reducing stress hormone levels (McCraty et al 1998) and enhancing immune system activity Rein et al 1995). These techniques have also been shown to impact organizationally relevant outcomes, such as improving productivity, goal clarity, communication, and job satisfaction, and reducing employee turnover (Barrios-Choplin et al 1997Childre and Cryer 2000;McCraty et al 1991McCraty et al , 2003. In addition, practice of the HeartMath techniques has been demonstrated to improve health status and quality of life in diverse clinical populations.…”

“…In addition, practice of the HeartMath techniques has been demonstrated to improve health status and quality of life in diverse clinical populations. For example, significant blood pressure reductions have been demonstrated in individuals with hypertension (McCraty et al 2003), improved functional capacity and reduced depression in congestive heart failure patients (Luskin et al 2002); improved psychological health and quality of life individuals with diabetes (McCraty et al 2000), and improvements in symptoms in patients with cardiac arrhythmias (McCraty and Tomasino 2006a). In a UK study, increased HRV coherence, enhanced calmness, and improved long-term memory were measured in healthy individuals who used the techniques over a period of 7 weeks (Bradford et al 2005); see also summary in McCraty et al (2006).…”

“…Furthermore, while the HeartMath intervention employs heart rhythm coherence biofeedback in conjunction with positive emotion-focused self-regulation techniques to activate the coherence mode, heart rhythm coherence can also be achieved using other HRV biofeedback protocols, such as those reported by Lehrer and colleagues, who use the term ''resonance'' to describe the target physiological state (Lehrer et al 2000;Vaschillo et al 2006). HRV biofeedback has been shown to increase HRV and heart rhythm coherence and to produce positive outcomes in various populations, including clinically significant improvements in asthma (Lehrer et al 2004), hypertension (McCraty et al 2003), and depression (Karavidas 2008;Siepmann et al 2008). This intervention has also been found to augment vagal regulation of heart rate while facilitating psychological adjustment in patients with coronary heart disease (Nolan et al 2005).…”

Treatment of allergic rhinitis can improve blood pressure control

“…26 QOL improvement has been targeted in rehabilitation programs among patients with AH, owing to the belief that stress reduction can reduce hypertension. 27 Moreover, some intervention programs for stress reduction are used effectively for BP reduction. [27][28][29][30] It is well known that patients with AH tend to underestimate the impact of their condition on QOL, 31,32 yet in several studies an improvement of QOL had been noted to cause BP reduction.…”