Psychosocial Stressors, Health Behaviors, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Healthy Young Women

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is increasingly evident in emerging adulthood, particularly among women, who may be more vulnerable to non-traditional risk factors such as psychosocial stress. Arterial stiffness is a subclinical marker of vascular aging and early CVD risk, yet little is known about how psychosocial stressors affect arterial stiffness in young women or whether health behaviors can help moderate these effects. Objectives: This study examined the associations between psychosocial stressors—specifically perceived stress, everyday discrimination, and heightened vigilance—and arterial stiffness in healthy emerging adult women. It also evaluated whether physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep behaviors moderated these relationships. A secondary aim assessed the acute vascular response to aerobic exercise and whether stress influenced this response. Methods: Fifty healthy women (mean age = 21) completed validated stress questionnaires and underwent objective assessment of physical activity and sleep (including sleep duration and wake after sleep onset). Arterial stiffness was assessed using carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV), pulse transit time, and wave reflection indices. Acute vascular responses to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise were also measured. Results: Heightened vigilance was the most consistent psychosocial predictor of increased arterial stiffness. Greater moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with more favorable vascular profiles, while discrimination blunted the vascular benefits of acute exercise. Sedentary behavior and disrupted sleep (particularly higher WASO and shorter sleep duration) significantly moderated the relationship between psychosocial stress and arterial stiffness, amplifying adverse effects in those with poorer health behaviors. Conversely, higher physical activity levels and sufficient sleep buffered stress-related vascular changes. Conclusions: Psychosocial stressors impact vascular health even in young, healthy women, and these effects are shaped by daily behavioral patterns. Findings underscore the importance of adopting a 24-hour health behavior approach—emphasizing physical activity, reduced sedentary time, and adequate sleep—as early preventive strategies against CVD in emerging adult women.