Objective: To studied family stress effect on relative risk of an arterial hypertension (AH) and myocardial infarction (MI) in female population aged of 25-64 years in Russia over 16 years of follow-up.
Methods: Under the third screening of the WHO "MONICA-psychosocial" program random representative sample of women aged 25-64 years (n=870) were surveyed in Novosibirsk. Questionnaire “Awareness and attitude towards the health” was used to estimate levels of family stress. From 1995 to 2010 women were followed for the incidence of AH and MI. Cox regression model was used for relative risk assessment (HR).
Results: The prevalence of high family stress level in women aged 25-64 years was 20.9%. HR of AH over 16 years of follow-up in women with high family stress was 1.39-fold higher (95.0%CI:1.99-15.70, p=0.001) compared to those with lower levels of family stress. HR of MI over 16 years was 5.59-fold higher (95.0%CI:1.99-15.70, p=0.001) for high stress level. There were tendencies of increasing AH and MI rates in married women experienced stress in family. AH developed significantly higher in women with university and college education compared to those having elementary school with (χ2=5.63 df=1 p<0.05; χ2=4.01 df=1 p<0.05, for university and college, respectively) or without stress at home (χ2=5.45 df=1 p<0.05; χ2=4.39 df=1 p<0.05, respectively). In relation to occupational class AH rates were higher in groups “first-line manager” (χ2=5.94 df=1 p<0.05) and “physical worker” ((χ2=8.14 df=1 p<0.01) experienced stress in family. MI rates were tending to be higher in “managers” and “engineers” experienced stress in family.
Conclusion: There is high prevalence of family stress in female population aged 25-64 in Russia. Women with high family stress had significantly higher risk of AH, MI over 16-th years of follow-up and more likely in married women with higher educational level in professional class “managers” and “physical workers”.
