Skip to main content
Download PDF

Association between Life Stressors and Arterial Stiffness: The Finnish Retirement and Aging Study

Artery Research volume 27, pages 129–134 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

Besides traditional risk factors, other factors such as life stressors are linked with incident cardiovascular disease. However, the underlying mechanisms for this association remain mostly unknown. We studied the relation of life stressors (job strain, sleep loss due to worry, illness or death in family, financial difficulties and caregiving) and their accumulation with arterial stiffness, an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease.

Methods

258 participants (mean age 62.4 years, 82% women) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study underwent measurements for carotid-femoral Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), a standard criterion for assessing arterial stiffness and responded to a survey inquiring life stressors. Using analysis of covariance, we estimated group means adjusted for age, gender, occupation, lifestyle factors and hypertension.

Results

Participants with recent illness or death in family (8.04 m/s; 95% CI, 7.40–8.73 vs. 7.52 m/s; 95% CI, 7.03–8.05) and financial difficulties (8.65 m/s; 95% CI, 7.62–9.81 vs. 7.71 m/s; 95% CI, 7.21–8.24) had increased PWV compared to those who did not have exposed to these stressors independent of lifestyle factors, diabetes and systolic blood pressure. In addition, increasing number of life stressors demonstrated an association towards increased PWV (≥2 stressors: 8.04 m/s; 95% CI, 7.42–8.72 vs. 0 stressors 7.74 m/s; 95% CI, 7.23–8.28; p for trend 0.27) but the association attenuated after adjusting for lifestyle factors, diabetes and systolic blood pressure.

Conclusion

Life stress was found to associate with higher arterial stiffness. Increased arterial stiffness could explain some of the increased cardiovascular disease risk related to life stressors.

Highlights

  • Arterial stiffness was assesed as carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity.

  • Illness or death in the family were associated with an increased arterial stiffness.

  • Financial difficulties were associated with an increased arterial stiffness.

  • A trend toward increasing number of stressors and higher arterial stiffness exists.

References

  1. GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet 2016;388:1659–724.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kivimäki M, Nyberg ST, Batty GD, Fransson EI, Heikkilä K, Alfredsson L, et al. Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data. Lancet 2012;380:1491–7.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Hassoun L, Herrmann-Lingen C, Hapke U, Neuhauser H, Scheidt-Nave C, Meyer T. Association between chronic stress and blood pressure: findings from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults 2008–2011. Psychosom Med 2015;77:575–82.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Sparrenberger F, Cichelero FT, Ascoli AM, Fonseca FP, Weiss G, Berwanger O, et al. Does psychosocial stress cause hypertension? A systematic review of observational studies. J Hum Hypertens 2009;23:12–19.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Steptoe A, Kivimäki M. Stress and cardiovascular disease. Nat Rev Cardiol 2012;9:360–70.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ben-Shlomo Y, Spears M, Boustred C, May M, Anderson SG, Benjamin EJ, et al. Aortic pulse wave velocity improves cardiovascular event prediction: an individual participant meta-analysis of prospective observational data from 17,635 subjects. J Am Coll Cardiol 2014;63:636–46.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bomhof-Roordink H, Seldenrijk A, van Hout HPJ, van Marwijk HWJ, Diamant M, Penninx BWJH. Associations between life stress and subclinical cardiovascular disease are partly mediated by depressive and anxiety symptoms. J Psychosom Res 2015;78:332–9.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kaewboonchoo O, Sembajwe G, Li J. Associations between job strain and arterial stiffness: a large survey among enterprise employees from Thailand. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2018;15:659.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Michikawa T, Nishiwaki Y, Nomiyama T, Uemura T, O’Uchi T, Sakurai H, et al. Job strain and arteriosclerosis in three different types of arteries among male Japanese factory workers. Scand J Work Environ Health 2008;34:48–54.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Otsuka T, Kawada T, Ibuki C, Kusama Y. Relationship between job strain and radial arterial wave reflection in middle-aged male workers. Prev Med 2009;49:260–4.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Utsugi M, Saijo Y, Yoshioka E, Sato T, Horikawa N, Gong Y, et al. Relationship between two alternative occupational stress models and arterial stiffness: a cross-sectional study among Japanese workers. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2009;82:175–83.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Nomura K, Nakao M, Karita K, Nishikitani M, Yano E. Association between work-related psychological stress and arterial stiffness measured by brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity in young Japanese males from an information service company. Scand J Work Environ Health 2005;31:352–9.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Slepecky M, Kotianova A, Prasko J, Majercak I, Gyorgyova E, Kotian M, et al. Which psychological, psychophysiological, and anthropometric factors are connected with life events, depression, and quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2017;13:2093–104.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Leskinen T, Pulakka A, Heinonen OJ, Pentti J, Kivimäki M, Vahtera J, et al. Changes in non-occupational sedentary behaviours across the retirement transition: the Finnish Retirement and Aging (FIREA) study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2018; 72:695–701.

  15. Karasek R, Brisson C, Kawakami N, Houtman I, Bongers P, Amick B. The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): an instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. J Occup Health Psychol 1998;3:322–55.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Goldberg DP. The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire; a technique for the identification and assessment of non-psychotic psychiatric illness. London: Oxford University Press; 1972.

  17. Lindroos AS, Johansson JK, Puukka PJ, Kantola I, Salomaa V, Juhanoja EP, et al. The association between home vs. ambulatory night-time blood pressure and end-organ damage in the general population. J Hypertens 2016;34:1730–7.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Li J, Hansen D, Mortensen PB, Olsen J. Myocardial infarction in parents who lost a child: a nationwide prospective cohort study in Denmark. Circulation 2002;106:1634–9.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Albert MA, Slopen N, Williams DR. Cumulative psychological stress and cardiovascular disease risk: a focused review with consideration of black-white disparities. Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep 2013;7:318–25.

    Google Scholar 

  20. McEwen BS. Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. N Engl J Med 1998;338:171–9.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Zhong Q, Hu MJ, Cui YJ, Liang L, Zhou MM, Yang YW, et al. Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity in the prediction of cardiovascular events and mortality: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Angiology 2018;69:617–29.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Landsbergis PA, Schnall PL, Pickering TG, Warren K, Schwartz JE. Lower socioeconomic status among men in relation to the association between job strain and blood pressure. Scand J Work Environ Health 2003;29:206–15.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Townsend RR, Wilkinson IB, Schiffrin EL, Avolio AP, Chirinos JA, Cockcroft JR, et al. Recommendations for improving and standardizing vascular research on arterial stiffness: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension 2015;66:698–722.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. The authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Saana Karelius, Teemu J. Niiranen & Sari Stenholm

  2. Division of Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Saana Karelius, Teemu J. Niiranen & Sari Stenholm

  3. Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Jussi Vahtera

  4. Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Jussi Vahtera

  5. Paavo Nurmi Centre & Unit for Health and Physical Activity, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Olli J. Heinonen

  6. Department of Public Health Solutions, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

    Teemu J. Niiranen & Sari Stenholm

Authors
  1. Saana Karelius
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jussi Vahtera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Olli J. Heinonen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Teemu J. Niiranen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sari Stenholm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saana Karelius.

Additional information

Peer review under responsibility of the Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology

Data availability statement: Anonymized partial datasets of the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study are available by application with bona fide researchers with an established scientific record and bona fide organizations. For more information, please contact prof. Sari Stenholm (sari.stenholm@utu.fi).

Rights and permissions

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Karelius, S., Vahtera, J., Heinonen, O.J. et al. Association between Life Stressors and Arterial Stiffness: The Finnish Retirement and Aging Study. Artery Res 27, 129–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.210608.001

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.210608.001

Key Words

Artery Research

ISSN: 1876-4401

Contact us