An ecologic analysis of psychosocial stress and heart disease in British Columbia

Perceived stress and health-related outcomes in a Swiss population sample 1This research was supported by grants from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, the Swiss Foundation of Health Promotion and the Swiss Federal Office of Sports

This cross-sectional study aimed at analysing the perception of stress and its relation to health-related outcomes in the Swiss population. A sample drawn from this population included 992 participants aged 15 to 64 years. The interview covered socio-demographic data, perceived stress, psychological and somatic symptoms as well as perceived general health status. Patterns of stress were grouped into three categories. “Stressed” included persons who reported that they felt overwhelmed by stressful situations during the previous month. “Challenged” included those who reported that they experienced stressful situations but could manage those well. “Not stressed” consisted of respondents who did not experience stress. Results indicated that 38.6% of the sample reported being stressed, 33.3% challenged and 28.1% not stressed. Analysis of the distribution of perceived stress showed that, in particular, women, younger people, single parents, students and the self-employed felt stressed relatively often. In a logistic regression analysis, age and gender remained the factors most strongly associated with self-perceived stress. Perception of stress was not related to subjective ratings of general health. However, respondents in the stressed category were more likely than their counterparts to indicate various clinically relevant symptoms. 2 The authors are grateful to Julie Page and Jen Wang for their critical reading of the manuscript.

Stable pessimistic attributions interact with socioeconomic status to influence blood pressure and vulnerability to hypertension

We investigated the relationship of pessimistic attributional style (specifically, stable attributions for negative events) and socioeconomic status (SES) to cardiovascular and catecholamine profiles in a biracial sample of 37 postmenopausal women (aged 39-64 years) not taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Blood pressure (BP) variation in response to the demands of daily life was assessed by 24-hour ambulatory monitoring on a typical workday. Subjects were classified into groups by stable pessimistic attributions (high vs. low pessimism) and by SES (high vs. low). Significant SES x pessimism interactions were found. Low SES/high pessimism women demonstrated higher systolic BP (SBP) during the day, evening, and sleep periods of 24-hour ambulatory monitoring compared with the other three groups. A greater proportion of this group was in the hypertensive range (> or = 140/90 mm Hg) compared with the other groups (57% vs. 8%-29%). Low SES/high pessimism women also reported reduced available social support compared with the other three groups.