Association of stress with cardiovascular diseases and risk factors in a population (ESSE-RF in Kemerovo region)

Aim. To assess the prevalence of stress and its association with socio-demographic characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the Siberian population.

Material and methods. A cross-sectional study was performed in the framework of the Russian multicenter epidemiological study ESSE-RF in the Kemerovo Region in 2013. The presented study included 1628 individuals aged 25 to 64 years. Information was assessed on the presence of stress, some socio-demographic and economic characteristics, a history of CVD, as well as behavioral habits and quality of life. To eliminate the modifying effect of socio-demographic characteristics, a logistic regression analysis was used. The odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

Results. The prevalence of stress was 22,6%; stress was statistically significantly more often recorded in women (28,1%) than in men (11,7%). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, stress was statistically significantly more often recorded in people with secondary and primary education compared with those with higher education (24,9% and 19,1%, p=0,006), as well as in people with middle and high financial affluence compared with low affluence (24,5% and 11,3%, p<0,001). This association is observed only at the expense of women. For unemployed participants, the stress rate is higher only among males — 18,8% versus 11,4% among workers (p=0,015). Stress was also statistically significantly more often recorded in groups with arterial hypertension, lack of sleep, quality of life on the EQ-VAS scale and on the EuroQol scale. Smokers are more likely to have stress (23,8% vs 22,0%) and have a history of stroke (35,3% vs 22,2%). Among all CVDs and their risk factors, an inverse association of stress with obesity was revealed only in men.

Conclusion. Study showed that people with stress are under large load of some cardiovascular risk factors. At the same time, ambiguous associations between stress and arterial hypertension and quality of life were obtained. This confirms the need for further study of the association of stress with other factors of cardiovascular risk, taking into account age and gender and socio-economic characteristics of the population.

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