The Impact of Spirituality on Cardiovascular Reactivity Among African Americans

Abstract

In 2005, almost 71 million Americans had at least one form of cardiovascular disease. CVD can be caused by a group of metabolic risk factors including hypertension, abdominal obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. African Americans share a disproportionate amount of stress-related disorders, including stress specifically related to racial and ethnic differences. Stress from racism or discrimination is pervasive and chronic. Racial discrimination may account for health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study seeks to examine the role of religiousness / spirituality (R/S) as a buffer to stress. The current exploratory study examined the effects of religiousness and spirituality on stress reactivity following an acute racial stressor among African American men and women. In particular, this study examined whether religiousness/spirituality serves as a buffer to stress in an allostatic model where body mass index categories are compared for changes in stress reactivity. Stress was measured by systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and salivary cortisol. Results partially supported the study hypotheses. Stress reactivity was generally the lowest for normal weight participants and highest for participants who were obese. In addition, the effect of religiousness and spirituality on stress varied by allostatic load, as indicated by BMI in the current study. There was no support found for overall religiousness or overall spirituality providing a buffer effect for diastolic or cortisol stress reactivity. This study is important because it provides additional details about the relationship between spirituality and health outcomes. This study also provides evidence that allostatic load from overweight or obesity increases stress and decreases the body's effectiveness of responding additional stressors. This research project has added to the body of knowledge regarding convergent and divergent validity of R/S, as measured by the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality (BMMRS), with several other measures of resilience, hope, well-being, social support, depression, and state anxiety.