Cardiovascular (CV) responsivity and recovery to acute stress and future CV functioning in youth with family histories of CV disease: A 4-year longitudinal study

Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) data obtained during supine rest, in response to and recovery from four laboratory stressors in a baseline year were used to predict supine resting BP and HR values obtained during each of four consecutive annual follow-up evaluations. Subjects were 385 normotensive youth [95 African American (AA) males, 106 AA females, 92 European American (EA) males, 92 EA females] (mean age 12.7±2.6 at baseline year) with a positive family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). During the baseline evaluation subjects were presented with four laboratory stressors (namely, postural change, video game challenge, social competence interview, and parent-child conflict discussion). The BP and HR values taken during each of the laboratory stressors and during the post stressor recovery periods were converted to z-scores which were averaged to yield aggregate measures for systolic and diastolic BP and HR responsivity and recovery. The data obtained during the baseline evaluation were subsequently used to predict the follow-up values of supine resting BP and HR. The prediction models were fairly consistent across each of the 4 follow-up years. Responsivity or recovery accounted for up to 6% of the total variance after accounting for baseline values. Within the prediction models responsivity or recovery accounted for 4-56% of the variance. The predictive value of the derived models did not decline from one annual evaluation to the next over the length of the study. CV recovery may supplement resting and responsivity in the prediction of future development of CVD