Cardiovascular reactivity to mental arithmetic and cold pressor in African Americans, Caribbean Americans, and white Americans

Background: Caribbean Americans and African Americans, two of the largest Black ethnic groups in the United States, differ in cardiovascular-disease-related mortality rates. Purpose: Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress may be an important marker or mediator of risk for cardiovascular disease development in Blacks in the United States, yet little attention has been paid to ethnicity among Blacks in reactivity research. This study examined cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress in African American, Caribbean American, and White American participants. Methods: Forty-five women and 43 men performed mental arithmetic and hand cold pressor (CP) tasks. Results: Caribbean Americans displayed larger decreases in heart period variability during mental arithmetic than White Americans (p = .02). White Americans exhibited a pre-ejection period decrease, whereas African Americans and Caribbean Americans displayed pre-ejection period increases during CP (p = .023). African Americans exhibited greater decreases in interbeat interval during CP than White Americans (p = .013). Caribbean Americans displayed greater decreases in cardiac output than White Americans during CP (p = .009). White Americans exhibited significantly greater increases in systolic blood pressure than Caribbean Americans during CP (p = .014). Conclusions: These findings suggest that differences in reactivity to psychological stress exist among Black ethnic groups in the United States and underscore the need to consider ethnicity as a factor in reactivity research with Black Americans.