Ernest Harburg

Socio-ecological stress, suppressed hostility, skin color, and Black-White male blood pressure: Detroit.

&NA; Four areas in Detroit were selected by factor analysis of all census tracts as varying widely in socio‐ecological stressor conditions. High Stress areas were marked by rates of low socio‐economic status, high crime, high density, high residential mobility, and high rates of marital breakup; Low Stress areas showed the converse conditions. All areas were racially segregated. The sample in each area provided about 125 married males, living with spouse, aged 25‐60, with relatives in the city. Blood pressure levels were highest among Black High Stress males and showed no difference among Black Low Stress and White areas. Suppressed Hostility (keeping anger in when attacked and feeling guilt if ones anger is displayed when attacked) was related to high blood pressure levels and percent hypertensive for Black High Stress and White Low Stress males; Black Low Stress men with high pressures were associated with anger in but denying guilt. White High Stress high readings were most associated with guilt after anger. For Blacks, skin color was related positively to blood pressure and High Stress males had darker skin color than Black middle class males. Black High Stress men with dark skin color and suppressed hostility had the highest average blood pressure of all four race‐area groups.

resentful and Reflective Coping with Arbitrary Authority and Blood Pressure: Detroit

&NA; Two hypotheses about coping with an arbitrary authority, an angry boss, were tested: (1) styles of handling anger vary with social status, and (2) these styles are in turn related to blood pressure levels. Two styles of coping were tested: model R‐R, Resentful vs. Reflective, and model I/O/R, Anger‐In, Anger‐Out, and Reflective. Handling an angry boss by Reflection is reported by more women than men, by those in middle‐class areas rather than lower class, and does not vary by race. Working class report more use of Anger‐Out than middle class who in turn report more use of Reflection. In general, the Anger‐In response did not vary by race, sex, or area of residence (12‐18%). For model R‐R, Reflection of bosss anger was related to lower blood pressure when compared to Resentful responses, within sex, race, and residence groups. For model I/O/R, working‐class, high stress persons who expressed Anger‐Out showed the highest mean levels. Reflection is an appraisal response related to vascular and neural deceleration in stress experiments. This mode can be learned, and may aid in handling daily emotional‐loaded stimuli to control blood pressure, along with learning a relaxation response.

Socioecological stressor areas and black-white blood pressure: Detroit

Abstract 1. 1. Blood pressure does appear to vary with ‘socioecological niches’ or combinations of sex, race and residence, which reflect social class position as well as degree of social stressor conditions. Black High Stress males had higher adjusted levels than Black Low Stress males, while White High Stress females had higher adjusted pressures than White Low Stress females. Black High Stress females had significantly higher observed levels than Black Low Stress females. 2. 2. Black High Stress males had a significantly higher per cent of Borderline and Hypertensive blood pressure than other male race-area groups; White Low Stress females had the lowest of all eight sex-race-stress area groups. 3. 3. For Black males, the younger, overweight High Stress residents had significantly higher Borderline and Hypertensive levels than did a similar Black Low Stress subgroup. Further, for both groups, being raised in Detroit and not migrating from elsewhere was related to higher readings. Tests for age-stress area interaction, however, were not significant.

Habitual Anger-Coping Styles: I. Effect on Mean Blood Pressure and Risk for Essential Hypertension

&NA; In this study we examined the effect(s) of race, sex socioecological stress, and habitual anger‐coping systolic/diastolic blood pressure levels and risk for being classified hypotensive. A total of 495 black/white males and 511 black/white females, residing in high/low stress areas of Detroit, were classified in terms of high, medium, and low levels of anger expression to various provocative interpersonal situations. Results indicated that: 1) race and anger expression were major determinants of diastolic pressure; 2) race and sex influence systolic pressure; 3) anger expression was related to systolic pressure, but only for female respondents; 4) all four behavioral factors were independently related to ones relative risk of being labeled hypertensive; and 5) the odds of being hypertensive by a multiple 1.56 with the addition of each behavioral risk factor. These findings extended our understanding of both the important role played by sociodemographic factors and socioecological niche in predisposing humans to vascular disease and the magnitude of difference in mean blood pressure and risk for hypertension attributable to chronic suppressed anger. The present finding also provide a basis for identifying subgroups of individuals who are especially at risk for hypertension and, similarly, a basis on which to calculate the amount of potential therapeutic benefit resulting from attempts at modifying one or more risk factors.

Glutathione and morbidity in a community-based sample of elderly

This study examined the association of blood glutathione level, a potential marker of physiological/functional aging, with a number of biomedical/psychological traits in a subgroup (N = 33) of a representative sample of community-based elderly. Higher glutathione levels were associated with fewer number of illnesses (p < 0.05), higher levels of self-rated health (p < 0.01), lower cholesterol (p < 0.05), lower body mass index, and lower blood pressures. Subjects with diagnoses of arthritis, diabetes, or heart disease (as assessed by physicians) had at least marginally significant lower glutathione levels than those who were disease free. Glutathione, together with age and a measure of suppressed anger, accounted for 39% of the variance of an index of morbidity. Glutathione, by itself, accounted for 24% of the variance. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of an association of higher glutathione levels with higher levels of physical health in a sample of community-based elderly. Further studies in large samples are needed to investigate glutathione as a potential overall health risk factor for morbidity among the elderly.

PERSONALITY TRAITS AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS ASSOCIATED WITH SYSTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS IN COLLEGE MALES

Abstract 1. 1. Seventy-four young white male college students (out of an original pool of 800 examined) were selected for having high or low systolic readings taken on a registration line. These students were then classified according to their paired casual, usual, and sustained levels of systolic blood pressure. Of 21 persons with a high paired casual systolic blood pressure (two independent determinations in excess of 140 mm Hg), 16 were also characterized as belonging to a ‘usual high’ group (blood pressure in excess of 131 mm on resting and repeated home readings). A ‘sustained’ high blood pressure group (n = 11) was further obtained by selecting those who were ‘high’ on their paired casual and their ‘usual’ blood pressure levels. These blood pressure patterns were then related with self ratings on the Cattell 16 PF questionnaire. 2. 2. A consistent elevation to the upper range of normal in the systolic blood pressure of these college males was associated with ‘submissiveness’ and ‘sensitivity’ as defined by Cattells 16 PF questionnaire. Subjects with ‘high paired casual’ systolic blood pressures described themselves as motivated to obtain social contacts, but in a ‘sensitive’ and ‘anxious’ manner. 3. 3. Subjects who were later selected for having a single high systolic blood pressure reading taken on first entering the physicians office (their second casual reading) tended more frequently to yield in an argument and then afterwards to change their private opinions toward agreement with partners who had an initially low systolic reading. 4. 4. Whereas obesity was highly correlated with higher systolic levels, the psychological correlates of obesity were different from those related to elevated ‘casual’ or ‘sustained’ blood pressure. Obese subjects in this population appeared to be physically active, and more confident, though somewhat anxious under the stress of school examinations.

A family set method for estimating heredity and stress. I. A pilot survey of blood pressure among Negroes in high and low stress areas, Detroit, 1966-1967.

A pilot survey designed to test the feasibility of measuring genetic and stress variables as they relate to blood pressure levels was carried out among Negroes residing in high and low stress census tracts in Detroit, 1966–1967. Fifty-six “family sets” or 280 persons were interviewed and blood pressure recordings were taken by trained nurses. Each family set was composed of an index, a spouse, a sibling and a first cousin of index, and an unrelated person in the census tract matched to index. The method and findings of obtaining such family sets is discussed and found to be encouraging enough to initiate a larger study. It was also found that proportions of persons with hypertensive levels were significantly greater in the high stress tract (32 per cent; N = 102) than in the low stress tract (19 per cent; N = 113).

Relation between casual blood pressure readings in youth and at age 40. A retrospective study

IT IS often believed that a transient or sustained systolic blood pressure in excess of 140 mm Hg in youth denotes that the young person is a candidate for later development of hypertensive vascular disease. The present study attempts to examine this postulate more closely. Records of a single casual blood pressure taken in the course of routine physical examinations during the period 1939-1942 at the University of Michigan Health Service were made available to us& Furthermore the present whereabouts of most of these individuals could be traced from records kept in the University Alumni Office.

Perceptions of the Neighborhood and the Desire to Move Out

Abstract A study of various perceptions of the neighborhood indicates that such perceptions are related to each other and to the desire to move out of the neighborhood. The study sample included 1000 adults, twenty-five to sixty years old, married, and living with their spouse. One half of the respondents lived in high stress census tracts (that is, characterized by a low socioeconomic level and high level of “social disorganization”) and the other half lived in low stress tracts. The sample was also divided equally by sex and race of respondent. The major findings of the study show that living in a high stress area has a strong influence on: familiarity with events of crime and violence in the neighborhood, negative evaluation of the police, perception of the neighborhood as unsafe, criticism of facilities in the neighborhood, dislike of the neighborhood, and desire to move out. Sex of the respondent played a small role in these findings, but race seemed to be a more important factor: black respondents h...

THE INTRAFAMILIAL TRANSMISSION OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS-I DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Abstract A sampling of 49 family clusters consisting of a key person with arthritis, his spouse, a sibling and the siblings spouse, 2 cousins and an unrelated individual have been interviewed 3 times with regard to their arthritis and a variety of social and psychological factors. The sample has been drawn in part from a national random sample and in part from an arthritis clinic. The two subsamples have been found sufficiently homogeneous for combination and some of the strengths and limitations of the design have been discussed.