Correlation of Perceived Mental Stress and Pulmonary Function Among Hypertensive Adults in the Age Group of 30-50 years - An Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension is increasing in India and is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. It has been linked to many diseases. Several studies showed that hypertension and lung function are associated causing reduction in lung function. Also stress has been listed as a potential and important cause of hypertension. But there was paucity of information about the stress having an effect on lung function in hypertensive adults, thus there was a need to conduct this study. Materials and Method: The study comprised of 72 controlled hypertensive adults. Stress was assessed using Perceived stress scale and the lung function was assessed using a Spirometer (Spirobank II). Data was collected and recorded in the Excel 2016 spreadsheet and analyzed using GraphPad Prism 9. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to analyze the normality of the data. Since the data has not passed the normality test, Spearman’s correlation test was used for calculating the correlation. Results: There was a very weak correlation between Perceived stress scale (PSS) score and FEV 1 which was statistically not significant (p>0.05). A weak correlation was found between PSS score and FVC which was statistically significant (p<0.05).PSS was negatively correlated with both the parameters of PFT (FEV1 and FVC) and there was no correlation between PSS and FEV1/FVC. Conclusion: Increased perceived stress levels may affect the lung function in hypertensive adults. Key words: Hypertension, Controlled hypertension, Pulmonary function, Stress, depression, lung function