Indices Of Maternal Stress And Cardiometabolic Health

Jamie Whitney, Marnie McLean, Kaitlyn Ramey, Bo Fernhall FACSM, Janet Catov, Jihong Liu, Sara Wilcox, Abbi Lane INTRODUCTION: Psychological stress and depression are strong cardiovascular risk factors in the general adult population. Whether indices of higher stress are related to subclinical cardiometabolic risk has not been directly measured in postpartum women. PURPOSE: To determine if indices of maternal stress are associated with cardiometabolic health among mothers who delivered a singleton birth 6 months to 3 years ago. METHODS: Blood pressure and endothelial function were measured after an overnight fast; BMI was calculated, and sociodemographic and lifestyle data were obtained using surveys. Endothelial function was measured using venous occlusion plethysmography. Maternal stress was quantified by assigning points for conditions linked to risk of postpartum depression: Black race, adverse pregnancy outcome, educational attainment of high school or less and single/divorced/separated relationship status at the time of assessment. High stress was defined as ≥2 or stressors. RESULTS: Compared to those with low stress scores (n = 53, 6% Black race, age = 34+/-1 yrs), those with higher stress (n = 26, 62% Black race, mean age = 301 yrs) had greater sedentary behavior (9.20.9 vs 5.20.4 hrs/day spent sedentary, p < 0.001). There was no difference in exercise scores between groups (38.03.2 vs 41.45.7 eu, p = 0.814). BMI was higher in those with higher stress scores (32.11.6 vs 27.01.0, p = 0.006). Mothers with high stress scores had worse endothelial function (7.90.9 vs 11.20.8 mL*100 g tissue-1*min-1, p = 0.020). There was no significant difference in blood pressures between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers with higher stress were more sedentary and had a higher BMI and lower endothelial function. Findings suggest intervening on sedentary behavior may be helpful for new mothers with higher stress to improve cardiometabolic health.