Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2025 Aug 21. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00593.2025. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Hypertension (HTN) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Afflicting ~ 50% of adults in the general population, HTN has recently been found to be more prevalent in individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+). HTN in the LGBTQ+ community is hypothesized to be mediated by excessive levels of identity-dependent psychosocial stress, as posited in the Minority Stress Theory. Previous studies examining the relation of stress and blood pressure in LGBTQ+ populations have largely been retrospective or used self-report data. We implemented a small pilot study to directly measure stress, anxiety, and depression levels and cuff-based blood pressure and heart rate in healthy cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) emerging adults, who may be at risk for HTN, and heterosexual emerging adults, as low-risk referents. Individuals had a mean age of 22 ± 2 years. We found that both stress and anxiety levels as assessed by the DASS-21 survey tool were higher in grouped queer individuals than heterosexual individuals. However, we did not identify any differences in mean systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, or heart rate between queer and heterosexual individuals. We conclude from these data that emerging adult queer individuals may be at an elevated risk for developing HTN compared to heterosexual individuals based on the excess stress and anxiety identified. The early twenties may represent a critical time point for mental health interventions to prevent the stress and anxiety from driving up blood pressure and causing HTN.
PMID:40839380 | DOI:10.1152/ajpheart.00593.2025
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