Stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity among African American smokers

Objectives: To test for differences in stress-induced cardiovascular functioning among hypertensive and normotensive African American (AA) smokers. Methods: Participants (n=35) were exposed to both stress and neutral mood inductions. Results: Repeated measures analyses of covariance produced a significant group x mood condition interaction for systolic blood pressure (P=.048), but not for diastolic blood pressure (P>.05). The most notable finding was that AA hypertensive smokers showed selectively greater elevations in their systolic responses compared with normotensive controls following the laboratory-induced stressor. Conclusions: Implications to an elevated risk of future cardiovascular disease among AA hypertensive smokers are discussed.