Discrimination and unfair treatment: relationship to cardiovascular reactivity among African American and European American women.

This study examined the relationship of cardiovascular reactivity to both interpersonal mistreatment and discrimination in a community-based sample of African American and European American women (N=363) in midlife. Subtle mistreatment related positively to diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity for African American participants but not their European American counterparts. Moreover, among the African American participants, those who attributed mistreatment to racial discrimination exhibited greater average DBP reactivity. In particular, these women demonstrated greater DBP reactivity to the speech task, which bore similarities to an encounter with racial prejudice but not to a nonsocial mirror tracing task. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that racial discrimination is a chronic stressor that can negatively impact the cardiovascular health of African Americans through pathogenic processes associated with physiologic reactivity.

Trait hostility and ambulatory cardiovascular activity: responses to social interaction.

This study examined trait hostility and social interaction in relation to ambulatory cardiovascular activity in 40 male and 39 female undergraduates. Participants wore an ambulatory blood pressure monitor and completed diary entries while engaged in everyday activities. Diary reports indicating that participants had been talking were used to identify cardiovascular readings taken during social interaction. Interaction effects for overall diastolic blood pressure and heart rate levels indicated that hostility was positively associated with these variables in men only. In addition, hostility was associated with higher systolic blood pressure during social interaction, an effect primarily due to data for men. Because physical activity was controlled statistically, it is likely that these effects were mediated by psychological processes. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cardiovascular reactivity to social interaction mediates the relationship between hostility and coronary disease, and they may have implications for understanding sex differences in coronary risk.