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Gender-Specific Associations of Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies with C-Reactive Protein in Middle-Aged and Older Men and Women

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Abstract

Background

Perceived stress and coping strategies may influence the risk of cardiovascular disease through their possible association with inflammation, but data remain controversial for perceived stress or scanty for coping strategies.

Purpose

We examined the associations of perceived stress and coping strategies with serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) in a Japanese general population.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 2,971 men and 4,902 women aged 40–69 years who were enrolled between 2005 and 2007. Subjects with possible inflammation-related disease, CRP levels ≥3,000 ng/mL, or currently used analgesics or lipid-lowering drugs were excluded. Analyses were performed by gender with adjustment for lifestyle, socioeconomic, and psychosocial factors.

Results

Unexpectedly, elevated perceived stress was significantly associated with lower CRP levels in men (P trend < 0.001) but not in women (P trend = 0.90) after adjustment for age and covariates. Among five items of coping strategies evaluated, “disengagement” showed a significant inverse association with CRP in men only (P trend = 0.027). In addition, a possible interaction between “emotional support seeking” and perceived stress on CRP was detected in men (P interaction = 0.021); “emotional support seeking” was associated with lower CRP at the high stress level only (P trend = 0.028).

Conclusions

Both perceived stress and coping strategies may be associated with systemic inflammation in Japanese men, yet caution must be exercised before accepting the stress–inflammation–disease pathway.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on the Special Priority Areas of Cancer (no. 17015018) and Innovative Areas (no. 221S0001), Scientific Research (a) no. 20249038 and (b) no. 18390182, and Young Scientists (a) no. 20689014 and (b) no. 18790380 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. The authors thank Dr. Monji Akira at the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, for his critical reading of this manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga, 849-8501, Japan

    Chisato Shimanoe, Yasuko Otsuka, Megumi Hara, Hinako Nanri, Yuichiro Nishida, Takeshi Imaizumi, Naoto Taguchi, Mikako Horita & Keitaro Tanaka

  2. St. Mary’s College Faculty of Nursing, Kurume, Japan

    Kazuyo Nakamura

  3. Faculty of Sports and Health Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Yasuki Higaki

  4. Department of Management, Fukuoka Institute of Health and Environmental Sciences, Dazaifu, Japan

    Tatsuhiko Sakamoto

  5. Division of International Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan

    Koichi Shinchi

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  1. Chisato Shimanoe
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Correspondence to Chisato Shimanoe.

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Shimanoe, C., Otsuka, Y., Hara, M. et al. Gender-Specific Associations of Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies with C-Reactive Protein in Middle-Aged and Older Men and Women. Int.J. Behav. Med. 21, 821–832 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-013-9341-y

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