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Stressful life events and augmentation index: results from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center

Hypertension Research volume 43, pages 45–54 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Several studies have reported a positive association between psychological stress and cardiovascular diseases; however, there is scarce evidence about various aspects of life stress, including traumatic, positive, and negative events. We aimed to evaluate the association between various stressful life events and indicators of cardiovascular risk, including the augmentation index. A total of 3276 participants from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center cohort (Mean age: 50.9) were analyzed cross-sectionally. By using the Life Experience Questionnaire, exposures were grouped as a “positive event,” “negative event,” or “traumatic event.” The augmentation index and subclinical atherosclerosis were measured. Multivariate polytomous logistic regression was used. Overall, stressful life events did not show any significant association with any cardiovascular index; however, increased odds ratios were observed between augmentation index quartiles and those who had experienced traumatic events (quartile 4: odds ratio = 1.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.09–1.82). The association remained valid among women when stratified by sex. There was no significant result in men. Traumatic events in women were positively associated with the augmentation index. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to trauma in the context of increased cardiovascular risk in women.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (grant number 2018R1C1B5083722) and the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number HI13C0715).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Sun Jae Jung, Yongwoo Jeon, Gabin Lee, Jee-Seon Shim & Hyeon Chang Kim

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Sun Jae Jung

  3. Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Jee-Seon Shim & Hyeon Chang Kim

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Correspondence to Hyeon Chang Kim.

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The protocol of this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Yonsei University (YUIRB- 4-2013-0661), and written informed consent was provided by all participants. All procedures in this work complied with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

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Jung, S.J., Jeon, Y., Lee, G. et al. Stressful life events and augmentation index: results from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center. Hypertens Res 43, 45–54 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-019-0331-6

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