Association Between Subjective Stress and Cardiovascular Diseases in Korean Population

Results: The responses of 25.6% of the subjects were that they felt high levels of stress. Significant differences in age, gender, education level, occupation, marital status, smoking and drinking status were observed by subjective stress levels (p<0.001 for all except p=0.035 for drinking status). After adjustment for non-modifiable covariates and modifiable covariates, subjects with high levels of stress showed an increase in the risk of angina, myocardial infarction-angina, and CVD, compared to those with low levels of stress [OR (95% CI) for non-modifiable covariates: 1.41 (1.04-1.90, p<0.05), 1.36 (1.06-174, p<0.05), and 1.30 (1.07-1.58, p<0.001)] and [OR (95% CI) for modifiable covariates: 1.44 (1.05-1.97, p<0.05), 1.41 (1.09-1.83, p<0.001), and 1.37 (1.12-1.68, p<0.001)]. Also, subjects with high levels of stress consumed more dietary fat than those with low levels of stress, but the opposite trend was observed regarding the consumption of carbohydrates (p<0.001 for both). Conclusion: Our findings showed that subjective stress levels adjusted for modifiable risk factors induced increased occurrence of CVD than that adjusted for non-modifiable risk factors.