Perceived Stress Modulates Blood Pressure Reactivity to Stress in College Students

Stress is an unavoidable part of everyday life that can have numerous effects on our bodies. In addition, the individual psychological perception of stress could represent a higher stress or stress reactivity in the physiological level, becoming the onset of many stress-related diseases. Persistently high levels of stress are common in college students and it's important to manage these levels to prevent the risk of health problems in the future. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of perceived stress on cardiovascular reactivity to stress in college students. METHODS: Fourteen college students (f=5) participated in the study. The Perceived Stress Scale was used to assess perceived stress. The median of summed score from the PSS was used to stratify the sample into low and high perceived stress. Participants were then submitted to the cold pressor test (CPT) while being continuously monitores with a beat-by-beat blood pressure monitor (FINAPRES). The protocol initiated with a 10min rest for baseline assessment, 2min with their hand immersed in cold water, finalizing with a 5min recovery period. RESULTS: There was a significant time-effect (p<0.005) for heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), showing that both groups responded to stress with an increase in cardiovascular activity. In addition, there was also a between-group effect (p<0.005) for SBP, indicating a higher reactivity for the high perceived stress group. CONCLUSION: Participants with higher perceived stress presented a higher SBP reactivity to stress, demonstrating that perceived stress may predict the stress reactivity in college students. Further research should investigate this in a larger sample with a greater heterogeneity of perceived stress scores and additional parameters of stress reactivity, such as heart rate variability.