Investigation of Psychosocial Stress and Cardiovascular Indices Among Cisgender Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Young Adults

Introduction: Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) have higher odds of having hypertension, greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), and worse mental health outcomes compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Additionally, LGB individuals face identity-specific stressors that increase the risk of CVD and can result in the development of maladaptive coping behaviors such as alcohol and nicotine use as well as decreased levels of physical activity. Current research is often retrospective, large-scale analyses, and has not yet investigated cardiovascular outcomes in real time as it relates to stress, anxiety, and depression. Hypothesis: Stress, anxiety and depression scores will associate with mean arterial pressure (MAP), and mean heart rate (mHR), and these associations will be stronger among LGB young adults compared to heterosexual adults. Methods: This study was approved by the Boston University Institutional Review Board. Cisgenderyoung adults aged 18-35 were brought in for blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) readings using an automated BP cuff. Participants were surveyed regarding their health and identity demographics and stress, anxiety and depression levels using the DASS-21. Two-way ANOVA tests were used to determine differences in DASS-21 scores, mHR, and MAP between groups based on gender identity (man and woman) and sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual). General linear univariate regression tests were used to assess relationships between stress, anxiety, and depression with mHR and MAP separately for groups based on sexual orientation and gender. Results: Mean age of participants is 22.1 ± 1.97. Of the 29 respondents, 8 (28%) identify as queer women, 10 (34%) identify as heterosexual women, 5 (17%) identify as queer men, and 6 (21%) identify as heterosexual men. Queer respondents in comparison to heterosexual respondents have significantly higher stress (p = 0.022) and anxiety scores (p = 0.016) than heterosexual participants. No associations were found between MAP and stress or anxiety in heterosexual or queer participants. Anxiety scores are more strongly associated with mHR among queer participants than heterosexual participants (R = 0.465 vs. R = 0.179), however this association is not significant for queer (p = 0.110) or heterosexual (p = 0.506) participants. Conclusion: Queer young adults demonstrate worse stress and anxiety scores measured by the DASS-21 and moderate associations of mHR with anxiety scores compared to heterosexual counterparts, without displaying a hypertensive phenotype. This may be caused by elevated stress-dependent autonomic reactivity and queer young adults may therefore benefit from mental health support as a cardioprotective measure to prevent worsening autonomic function over the life course. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.