High stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease! Latest analysis of PURE study

A recent analysis of the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study found that the risk of cardiovascular disease events is significantly increased under severe stress.

The study included 118,000 residents in 21 countries, including five low-income countries, 12 middle-income countries and four high-income countries. In the study, residents under heavy stress were slightly younger and more likely to have risk factors such as smoking or abdominal obesity, which are more common in high-income countries.

The median follow-up was 10 years, during which 5934 cardiovascular events occurred, including myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure.

After adjustment, the researchers found that severely stressed residents had a 22% increased risk of cardiovascular events and a 30% increased risk of stroke, while mildly and moderately stressed residents had no increased risk.

Previous studies by the same research group found that people who perceived themselves to be under great stress had a 1.45 times higher risk of acute myocardial infarction, while those who were under long-term stress at work had a 2.17 times higher risk of myocardial infarction.

Lin Shuguang and others also pointed out in their review article in this journal that negative life events are clearly related to cardiovascular disease. Negative life events stimulate emotions and activate the sympathetic nervous system, which leads to increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and vasoconstriction, causing an imbalance between oxygen demand and supply in the coronary arteries and heart that already have lesions, leading to myocardial infarction.

The study divided the stress felt by residents in the past year into three aspects: psychosocial stress, life events, and economic stress. Psychosocial stress is defined as irritability, anxiety, or difficulty sleeping due to work or family conditions. Unemployment, retirement, business failure, divorce, death of spouse/close relative, or major illness are life events; the level of economic stress is obtained by investigating whether financial stress has been felt in the past 12 months; the overall stress level ranges from zero (no stress) to level three (severe stress).

Among them, 7.3% reported severe stress, 18.4% moderate stress, and 29.4% mild stress.

Source: China Circulation Magazine