Bn. Uchino et al., Age-related differences in cardiovascular reactivity during acute psychological stress in men and women, J GERONT B, 54(6), 1999, pp. P339-P346
Citations number
53
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Medical Research General Topics
Journal title
JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES B-PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
We examined potential age and gender differences in cardiovascular reactivi
ty during acute psychosocial stress in 133 normotensive participants using
a cross-sectional design. Results revealed that age predicted increased sys
tolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity during stress (p < .001). The greater
SBP reactivity found in older individuals appeared due to an age-associate
d increase in both cardiac output and total peripheral resistance during st
ress as statistically, controlling for these changes rendered the age and S
EP reactivity effect nonsignificant. Similar analyses revealed that the age
-related increase in cardiac output reactivity appeared to be driven by inc
reased cardiac sympathetic control of myocardial contractility as measured
by pre-ejection period. Older individuals also had greater vagal withdrawal
during stress compared to younger individuals as indexed by respiratory si
nus arrhythmia (p < .01). These results were comparable for men and women,
and could not be explained by task-specific affective responses, task perfo
rmance, or demographic factors. Implications for the study of age, cardiova
scular reactivity and health are discussed.