Salt Sensitivity, Anxiety, and Irritability Predict Blood Pressure Increase over Five Years inHealthy Males

• Published in: Clinical and experimental hypertension (1993) 2006, Vol.28 (1), p.17-27
• Main Authors: Deter, Hans-Christian, Micus, Clemens, Wagner, Miriam, Sharma, Arya M., Buchholz, Konrad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anxiety; blood pressure; irritability; mental stress reactivity; salt sensitivity
• ISSN: 1064-1963; 1525-6006
• DOI: 10.1080/10641960500386627

Salt sensitivity and psychological factors are thought to be associated with a higher risk for the development of hypertension but data on the relation between age-related blood pressure increase and salt sensitivity or psychological factors are scarce. A total of 31 healthy young males who were previously classified with respect to salt sensitivity, mental stress reactivity, trait-anxiety, trait-anger, and irritability were followed up 4.8 years later by 24 hr ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABP). Our results showed anxiety and irritability correlated significantly with 24-hr ABP 4.8 years later (p < 0.05). The increase of diastolic blood pressure over 4.8 years was higher in salt-sensitive than salt-resistant subjects (p < 0.07). Heart rate and diastolic blood pressure correlated significantly with systolic and diastolic 24-hr ABP and blood pressure reactivity under mental stress with diastolic 24-hr ABP. A regression analysis that included cardiovascular and psychological factors yielded 34% (systolic ABP, p < 0.009) and 58% (diastolic ABP, p < 0.0001) of variance. We concluded that anxiety and irritability are important predictors of blood pressure increase over time in healthy males.