Caregiving for children or sick loved ones can be very stressful. so much so it can affect your heart health, new research shows.

High caregiving stress increases risk of high blood pressure by nearly 40% among Black women ages 21 to 44, according to results published recently in the journal Hypertension.

“Our analysis suggests that caregiver strain as a source of chronic stress may significantly contribute to the development of hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, among reproductive-age Black women,” said lead researcher Milla Arabadjian, an assistant professor at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Jackson Heath Study, a long-term research project following the health of more than 5,300 Black adults in Mississippi.

Participants had their blood pressure monitored, and were asked about caregiving stress as part of a health questionnaire.

Nearly 44% of the young Black women in the study developed high blood pressure during a follow-up period of more than seven years, results showed.

But caregiving stress made a difference: About 52% of the women who reported moderate or high caregiving stress developed high blood pressure, compared with about 41% of those with low caregiving stress or none, researchers found.

“Given the high lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, especially among reproductive-age Black women, we need to better identify the root causes contributing to the strain,” said senior researcher Tanya Spruill, an associate professor of population health and medicine at NYU Langone Health.

“If a lack of affordable childcare is a source, then linkage to childcare resources could be one solution,” Spruill said in an NYU news release. “If the source of strain is a communication challenge with a child or elderly relative, education might be tailored to help with that.”

More information

The American Heart Association has more on high blood pressure.

SOURCE: NYU Langone Health, news release, Dec. 12, 2024

Source: HealthDay