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Stress
The International Journal on the Biology of Stress
Volume 16, 2013 - Issue 4
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Research Article

Perceived stress and biological risk: is the link stronger in Russians than in Taiwanese and Americans?

, , , , , & show all
Pages 411-420 | Received 11 Oct 2012, Accepted 20 Mar 2013, Published online: 03 May 2013
 

Abstract

Allostatic load theory implies a relationship between exposure to psychological stress and multi-system physiological dysregulation. We used data from population-based samples of men and women in Russia (Moscow; n = 1800; age, mean 68.6 years), Taiwan (n = 1036; 65.6 years) and the United States (US; n = 1054; 58.0 years) -- which are likely to vary widely with respect to levels of stress exposure and biological markers -- to determine the magnitude of the association between perceived stress and physiological dysregulation. The measure of overall dysregulation was based on 15 markers including standard cardiovascular/metabolic risk factors as well as markers of inflammation and neuroendocrine activity. Subjective psychological stress was measured by the perceived stress scale. Only the Moscow sample demonstrated a positive association with overall dysregulation in both sexes. In the US, we found an association among women but not men. Among the Taiwanese, who report the lowest perceived stress, there was no association in women but an unexpected inverse relationship in men. The effects also varied across system-level subscores: the association with perceived stress was most consistent for standard cardiovascular/metabolic factors. Perceived stress was associated with inflammation and neuroendocrine activity in some samples. Although the evidence that perceived stress is the primary source of physiological dysregulation is generally modest, it was stronger in Russia where the level of perceived stress was particularly high. For Russia only, we had information about heart function based on a 24 h ambulatory electrocardiogram; perceived stress was consistently associated with heart rate dysregulation in Russian men and women.

Acknowledgements

The fieldwork and data processing for SAHR were conducted jointly by the National Research Center for Preventive Medicine (NRCPM, Moscow), the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR, Rostock, Germany) and Duke University (Durham, NC, USA). Collaborators at the Moscow Institute of Pediatry and Pediatric Surgery coordinated analysis of the 24 h electrocardiogram recordings. We express our gratitude to James W. Vaupel at MPIDR for his leadership in designing the SAHR and for encouraging investigation of the associations between socioeconomic status and biomarkers. We are also grateful to: Evgeny Andreev at the New Economic School (Moscow) and Alexander Deev at NRCPM, who were responsible for the massive data cleaning and processing work for the SAHR; Svetlana Shalnova at NRCPM, who made major contributions to the methodology for collecting, handling and processing various biological markers and helped ensure the quality of these data and Viktoria Metelskaya at NRCPM for providing consultation on the biochemical measurements.

We acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the staff at the Center for Population and Health Survey Research (BHP), who were instrumental in the design and implementation of the SEBAS and supervised all aspects of the fieldwork and data processing.

We thank the staff of the Clinical Research Centers at the UW-Madison, UCLA and Georgetown University for their support in conducting the MIDUS study.

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