Neighborhood problems and nocturnal blood pressure dipping

Living in adverse neighborhood conditions has been linked with greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to learn whether perceived neighborhood problems are related to attenuated nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping, a risk factor for CVD morbidity.

A sample of 133 adults (71 male, 62 female; 80 White, 53 Black) underwent 24-hr ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. The neighborhood problem scale (NPS) was used to assess neighborhood environmental stressors.

Nocturnal dipping in systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP) and mean arterial (MAP) blood pressure was reduced in individuals with higher NPS scores (p < .05). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that neighborhood problems explained 4%-6% of the variance in SBP, DBP, and MAP dipping (p < .05) even after adjusting for several theoretical confounders such as social status, age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking, exercise, depression and discrimination.

Neighborhood problems may contribute to attenuated BP dipping beyond the effect of known risk factors.