Race and blood pressure status influences cardiovascular responses to challenge

The influence of race and blood pressure status on cardiovascular responses to three challenges (interview, video game and cold pressor) was investigated in 50 healthy normotensive and 30 unmedicated mild-to-moderate hypertensive black and white men, aged 25-44 years old. Group differences were obtained for two tasks. The interview evoked race and blood pressure status differences: higher heart rate responses were elicited from normotensives compared with hypertensives and larger diastolic blood pressure (DBP) responses were elicited from whites compared with blacks. For the video game, black hypertensives displayed larger DBP responses than white hypertensives and greater systolic blood pressure and DBP responses than black normotensives. The video game heart rate response of white normotensives exceeded that of black normotensives and white hypertensives. These findings suggest that cardiovascular responses to challenge are affected by race and blood pressure status. The blood pressure hyperresponsiveness of black hypertensives compared with black normotensives to a psychological challenge (video game) provides generality to previous research conducted only on whites.