Blood pressure, ethnicity, and psychosocial resources

Research on psychosocial factors and cardiovascular disease has shown that psychosocial resources (including social supports and coping styles) help to protect individuals from the risk associated with psychosocial stressors. Some evidence indicates that this protective effect may extend to standard risk factors as well. This latter hypothesis was examined in greater detail in a study conducted in Brazil, in which it was found that psychosocial resources modified black-white differences in blood pressure. Highest mean blood pressures were observed among mixed race and black Brazilians who had low psychosocial resources; Afro-Brazilians with high psychosocial resources had lower blood pressures than white Brazilians. Implications of these results for the mechanisms linking ethnicity, psychosocial factors, and blood pressure are discussed.