Implications of Cumulative Life Event Stress for Daily Stress Exposure and Cardiovascular Reactivity Among Black and White Americans.

Individuals who experience more life events across the adult life course report greater daily stress exposure which has important implications for daily cardiovascular health. Black individuals with moderate-increasing life event stress show evidence of blunted daily stress reactivity (non significant association between daily stress and heart rate) whereas Black individuals with low-decreasing life event stress show evidence of stress reactivity (positive association between daily stress and heart rate). White individuals showed the opposite pattern (albeit marginally). These findings expand the weathering hypothesis and indicate that chronic life event stress may be associated with blunted stress reactivity among Black individuals.