Could Stress Inhibit Women's Recovery Post-Heart Attack?
Higher stress may explain why young and middle-aged women have worse recovery after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) than men do, according to a recent study.
Although nearly 35,000 women between 18 and 65-years-old experience heart attacks every year, there is limited examining the relationship between psychological factors and recovery.1,2
In order to explore this relationship further, researchers examined sex-based differences in stress levels and whether these differences helped to explain sex-based disparities in 1-month recovery from AMI in 3572 patients between the ages of 18 and 55 years. Of the patients, 2397 were women and 1175 were men.1,2
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During their hospitalization for AMI, participants’ stress was measured on a 14-item perceived stress scale scale (PSS-14). 2
Researchers found that women had a significantly higher average score of mental stress on the PSS-14 (27.0 for women vs. 23.4 for men), and worse recovery 1 month after their heart attack on various outcome measures including quality of life, overall health, and chest-pain-related physical function.1
Women’s higher stress was attributed to comorbidities, physical and mental health status, family issues, care-giving demands, and financial matters.
“Among young and middle-aged patients, higher stress at baseline is associated with worse recovery in multiple health outcomes after AMI. Women perceive greater psychological stress than men at baseline, which partially explains women's worse recovery,” they concluded.
-Michelle Canales
References:
1. American Heart Association. Stress may partly explain worse heart attack recovery in young and middle-aged women. February 9, 2015. http://newsroom.heart.org/news/stress-may-partly-explain-worse-heart-attack-recovery-in-young-and-middle-aged-women. Accessed February 10, 2015.
2. Xu X. Bao H, Strait K, et al. Sex differences in perceived stress and early recovery in young and middle-aged patients with acute myocardial infarction. Circulation. 2015 February [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.012826.