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Abstract Introduction Heightened and blunted cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychosocial stressors is suggested to increase health risks, such as cardiovascular diseases. One factor that may contribute to individual differences in stress reactivity and thus a potential development of adverse health consequences is chronic stress. Therefore, this study investigates whether chronic stress, assessed with hair cortisol concentration (HCC), is associated with acute cardiovascular reactivity in young adults. Methods Hair samples of two-centimeter length were collected to determine HCC from medical students in Germany (July 2020 - July 2021). The study participants took part in a virtual-reality Trier Social Stress Test and their cardiovascular reactivity was assessed by systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate variability (HRV). Cross-level interactions in piecewise linear growth analyses (n=54) were used to investigate whether three HCC categories (25th; 25th-75th; 75th percentile) were associated with cardiovascular reactivity. Results Higher HCC had a significant interaction with systolic and diastolic blood pressure reactivity, indicating that higher levels of HCC were associated with lower blood pressure reactivity compared to intermediate levels of HCC. There were no significant interactions found for HCC and HRV reactivity. Discussion The study showed, that higher levels of chronic stress (i.e. HCC) may contribute to a blunted blood pressure reactivity. Being exposed to higher levels of chronic stress may result in physiological adaptation to novel stressors or may show inadequate blood pressure responses to acute stress. Conclusion This study adds more evidence to the research on potential factors that may contribute to individual differences in cardiovascular stress reactivity in young adults.
Heming et al. (Mon,) studied this question.