African American adults under high levels of stress are at greater risk of heart disease and stroke, and less likely to achieve good levels of cardiovascular health, according to a study published by the Journal of the American Heart Association and partly funded by NHLBI.
The study analyzed stress-related information along with behavioral and clinical data from 4,383 participants in the NHLBI-funded Jackson Heart Study, a Mississippi-based long-term study of cardiovascular disease in African-American adults.
The researchers used the American Heart Association's Life Simple 7 measures to categorize each participant’s cardiovascular health as poor, intermediate or ideal. The measures include smoking, diet, physical activity, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar level.
“To address health disparities in ideal cardiovascular health among blacks compared with whites, attention to alleviating psychosocial stress through culturally sensitive individual interventions, community‐level programs, and policies is warranted,” the study said.