Stressful life events and current psychological distress are associated with self-reported hypertension but not with true hypertension: results from a cross-sectional population-based study

Abstract

Background: The evidence linking stress to hypertension has been scarcely documented in population-based studies.

Freqüência de hipertensão arterial e fatores associados: Brasil, 2006

“…16 Another limitation of this study is the representativeness of the sample, which is restricted to individuals who own a fi xed telephone line. The frequency of fi xed telephone line varies across Brazil's regions (40% to 85%), being lower in the Northeast region and higher in the Southeast region.…”

Occupational Status Moderates the Association Between Current Perceived Stress and High Blood Pressure

“…These interactions may account for some negative or equivocal results regarding the links between job strain, perceived stress, and BP in previous studies. 7,8,38 Our results may thus constitute an impetus for reanalyzing old datasets. Figure 2.…”

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H ypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular mortality worldwide and has several known risk factors, such as obesity, smoking, and excessive alcohol or salt intake.1 However, most patients with hypertension lend great importance to psychological stress in the regulation of blood pressure (BP) and in the need for taking antihypertensive drugs.2 Although acute psychological stress is associated with a transient BP elevation, 3 epidemiological studies do not consistently show chronic psychological stress to affect BP in the long term.4 Some studies found positive associations between psychological stress and hypertension, 5,6 whereas others showed no 7,8 or even negative associations.

9,10Reasons for these conflicting results can be potentially attributed to differences in the evaluation of psychological stress (eg, objective measures versus subjective measures) or outcomes (eg, BP threshold values, use of antihypertensive drugs). As regards psychological stress, objective measures quantify the exposure to several kinds of stressors (eg, stressful life events, occupational stress), whereas subjective measures, such as perceived stress, quantify the psychological Abstract-Although lay beliefs commonly relate high blood pressure (BP) to psychological stress exposure, research findings are conflicting.

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“…2 Although acute psychological stress is associated with a transient BP elevation, 3 epidemiological studies do not consistently show chronic psychological stress to affect BP in the long term. 4 Some studies found positive associations between psychological stress and hypertension, 5,6 whereas others showed no 7,8 or even negative associations.…”

“…4 Some studies found positive associations between psychological stress and hypertension, 5,6 whereas others showed no 7,8 or even negative associations.…”