Anxiety coping style and daily blood pressure variation of female nurses

OBJECTIVE: To examine how the style of coping with anxiety influences ambulatory blood pressures measured in work and home environments for 63 women aged 34 +/- 8 years employed as nurses. METHODS: Awake ambulatory blood pressures measured at work (n = 38 readings) and at home (n =7 readings) were compared among nurses who had been classified as belonging to four anxiety-coping-style groups: low anxious repressive (n = 18 work, n = 16 home), high anxious defensive (n = 4 work, n = 4 home) true low anxious (n = 21 work, n = 20 home) and true high anxious (n = 19 work, n = 18 home). The four anxiety-coping-style groups were determined by cross-classifying the women upon the basis of their scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (cutoff at 18) and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (cutoff at 14). RESULTS: Average systolic blood pressures at work and at home among nurses with a low anxious repressive coping style were significantly lower than were those of nurses with a high anxious defensive coping style (P < 0.05) and a true low anxious coping style ( P < 0.025). Nurses with a low anxious repressive coping style also had lower diastolic blood pressures at work than did those with a high anxious defensive coping style ( P < 0.05) and lower diastolic blood pressures at home than did those with a true anxious coping style ( P < 0.01). Finally, subjects with a high anxious defensive coping style had significantly higher systolic blood pressures at work and at home (P < 0.05) and higher diastolic blood pressures at work than did nurses with a true high anxious coping style. The effects of the style of coping on the variation of work and home blood pressures were independent of several covariates including weight, perceived stress, smoking, alcohol, postural variation, and number of children. The univariate scales of Social Desirability and Anxiety also had no effect on the variability of the blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Among employed women, the extent of the reponse of the blood pressure to stresses in the work and home environments could be infoluenced by the style of coping with anxiety. Furthermore, the effects of personality constructs such as the style of coping, which are defined by the interaction of psychologic dimensions, may reflect better the complexity of behavioral influences on the blood pressure than do the univariate psychometric measures of which they are composed.