Bloodpressurereactionstoaccountstressandfutureblood.doc

Blood pressure reactions to acute mental stress and future blood pressure status: Data from the 12-year follow-up in the West of Scotland Study Running head: Stress reactivity and future blood pressure Douglas Carroll, PhDa, Anna C. Phillips, PhDa, Geoff Der, PhDb, Kate Hunt, PhDb, and Michaela Benzeval, MScb aSchool of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England bMRC/CSO Social and Public Health Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland Words:3961 Tables:2 Figures:1 Address correspondence to: Douglas Carroll, PhD, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, England. E-mail carrolld@bham.ac.uk Blood pressure reactions to acute mental stress and future blood pressure: Data from the 12-year follow-up in the West of Scotland Study Douglas Carroll, Anna C. Phillips, Geoff Der, Kate Hunt, and Michaela Benzeval Abstract Objective: The reactivity hypothesis was tested using data from a 12 year follow-up of blood pressure. It was examined whether blood pressure reactions to acute mental stress predicted future blood pressure resting levels, as well as the temporal drift in resting blood pressure, and whether the prediction was affected by sex, age, and socioeconomic status. Methods: Resting blood pressure was recorded at an initial baseline and in response to a mental stress task. Twelve years later resting blood pressure was again assessed. Data were available for 1196 participants, comprising, at the time of stress testing, 437 24-year olds, 503 44-year olds, and 254 63-year olds, 645 women and 551 men, and 531 were from manual socioeconomic households and 661 non-manual socioeconomic households. Results: In multivariate linear regression models, adjusting for a number of potential confounders, systolic blood pressure reactivity positively predicted future resting systolic blood pressure, as well as the upward drift in systolic blood pressure over the 12 years, β = .10, p .001 in both cases.