Key result
Rising psychological stress is linked to increasing carotid IMT in midlife adults.
Why the study?
To test how changes in psychological stress relate to the progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease over multiple years in midlife adults, and explore the moderating role of cardiometabolic risk.
Do changes in psychological stress relate to the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in midlife adults?
Cohort (n=260)
Do changes in psychological stress relate to the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in midlife adults?
Increases in psychological stress during midlife are associated with corresponding increases in subclinical atherosclerosis, independent of traditional cardiometabolic risk factors.
Stress changes may accelerate midlife atherosclerosis progression; hypothesis-generating for stress-reduction trials on subclinical disease.
OBJECTIVE: In a midlife sample of adults, the present study tested the extent to which changes in psychological stress relate to the progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease over multiple years and explored the potential moderating role of cardiometabolic risk. METHOD: = 260), participants completed the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, underwent assessments of their cardiometabolic risk, and underwent ultrasonography to measure carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), which is a surrogate indicator of subclinical atherosclerosis. RESULTS: Regression models showed that the change in psychological stress from baseline to follow-up was positively associated with the corresponding change in IMT, with covariate control for age at baseline, sex at birth, and variability in length of follow-up across participants. Cardiometabolic risk factors did not statistically moderate this longitudinal association. In exploratory analyses, cardiometabolic risk factors also did not statistically mediate this association. CONCLUSION: These longitudinal findings suggest that increases in psychological stress in midlife relate to corresponding increases in subclinical atherosclerosis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Spencer et al. (2023) conducted a cohort in Subclinical atherosclerosis (n=260). Psychological stress was evaluated on Change in carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT). Increases in psychological stress from baseline to follow-up were positively associated with corresponding longitudinal increases in carotid artery intima-media thickness in midlife adults.
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