ABC | Volume 113, Nº3, September 2019

Original Article Dalmazo e al. Stress in hypertension Arq Bras Cardiol. 2019; 113(3):374-380 Table 1 – Characterization of participants CARACTERÍSTICAS n % Gender Women 67 67% Men 33 33% Age (mean ± standard deviation) 55.87 ±12.55 (minimum- maximum) (19 a 80) BLOOD PRESSURE SBP 182.38 ± 28.01 DBP 94.95 ± 12.42 ESTRESSE – LSSI Alert 2 2% Resistence 57 57% Almost exhaustion 11 11% Exhaustion 16 16% No stress 14 14% Nutritional State – BMI Eutrophic 31 31% Overweight 69 69% LSSI: Lipp Stress Symptom Inventory; SBP: systolic blood pressure; DBP: diastolic blood pressure; BMI: body mass index. Table 2 – Correlation of the Stress phases with food consumption and blood pressure LSSI Phases SBP DBP SBP 0.023 (p = 0.821) - - DBP 0.134 (p = 0.185) 0.449 (p > 0.01) - Ultraprocessed -0.059 (p = 0.563) -0.003 (p = 0.980) 0.070 (p = 0.490) Carbohidrates 0.008 (p = 0.938) -0.074 (p = 0.467) -0.115 (p = 0.253) Proteins -0.154 (p = 0.125) -0.044 (p = 0.663) -0.064 (p = 0.524) In natura -0.002 (p = 0.987) -0.113 (p = 0.262) -0.083 (p = 0.413) Lipids 0.160 (p = 0.313) -0.193 (p = 0.220) 0.003 (p = 0.987) Spearman Correlation Coefficient - correlation between stress phases (alert, resistance, near exhaustion and exhaustion) with food consumption (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, ultra-processed and in natura foods) p < 0.05. LSSI: Lipp Stress Symptom Inventory; SBP: systolic blood pressure; DBP: diastolic blood pressure. psychological symptoms are predominant may reveal that the individuals were worried, with low self-esteem and irritated, therefore, with their psychological conditions compromised, seeking for some compensation and well-being in food. It is known that emotions can determine food choices and preferences and foods are associated with the emotional context in which they are usually consumed. 26,27 Considering that primary prevention of blood pressure elevation can be achieved by controlling risk factors including changes in lifestyle, multimodal interventions are indicated to integrate education on healthy lifestyle and medical resources, physical activity, stress management and counseling on psychosocial risk factors. 28 The present study presented some limitations, we highlight the application of the questionnaire of the frequency of food consumption. This method requires greater precision to remember the foods consumed in the different frequencies evaluated, which could potentially be considered a memory bias. However, among the types of validated food consumption protocols, this is considered to be more reliable and representative of food when compared to the 24-hour food recall or food diary. Another difficulty observed was the small number of scientific studies on the subject, which made it difficult to deepen the discussion of the data. In the population of hypertensive patients, it is necessary to explore team strategies for better management of stress, as well as to prescribe a reduction in the intake of fatty foods and to accompany them, which will imply the effectiveness of disease control, risk control related to comorbidities and better quality of life. 377