Influence of perceived level of stress upon ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory frequency.

The hypothetical advantage of ambulatory blood pressure (BP) recordings over clinical casual BP readings is based on the assumption that it reflects the impact of daily life stress. We investigated the relation of ambulatory BP, heart rate (HR), and respiratory frequency (RF) readings to environmental conditions (work vs. home) and to the perceived level of stress (from 1 = completely relaxed to 5 = extremely stressed) in 34 healthy employed subjects. Systolic and diastolic BP (129 vs. 120 mmHg; 89 vs. 82 mmHg), RF (18 vs. 16 resp/min) and perceived stress (2.3 vs. 1.6 a.u.) differed significantly between work and home. ANOVA revealed a significant effect of perceived stress on SBP (F = 7.87; p less than 0.001), DBP (F = 8.73; p less than 0.001), and HR (F = 7.23; p less than 0.001).