Urbanicity affects blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to a speech stressor in Cameroon.

OBJECTIVE To examine the interactive influence of urbanicity on cardiovascular reactivity to speech stressors among 103 urban and 93 rural Cameroonians. METHOD Heart rate, systolic, and diastolic blood pressure (HR, SBP, and DBP) changes from baseline were assessed during a speech preparation period, speech stressor task, and post-speech recovery period. RESULTS After adjusting for income, age, BMI, and sex, urban subjects showed greater diastolic reactivity to the pre-speech and speech conditions than to recovery. Urban subjects also showed greater reactivity to the speech stressor than to other conditions. Urban subjects showed greater HR reactivity to the speech stressor. Rural subjects showed greater diastolic reactivity to the pre-speech and speech stressor and less recovery. CONCLUSION Urbanicity affects blood pressure and heart rate differently for urban and rural Cameroonians. It also affects recovery from stressors. More exploration into the influence of urbanization on hypertension risk factors in developing countries is warranted.