Abstract 152: John Henryism Active Coping, Blood Pressure, and Arterial Stiffness in Korean Americans

Introduction It is well known that blood pressure (BP) is inversely related to socioeconomic status (SES). John Henryism Active Coping (JHAC) is defined as a strong behavioral predisposition to cope with psychosocial stressors in an active and determined manner, and has been used to explain cardiovascular disparity in African Americans. According to JHAC hypothesis, the inverse relationship between cardiovascular risk and SES is more prominent for the individuals with high JHAC. High levels of psychological stress and high prevalence of hypertension (32%) have been reported in Korean Americans (KAs). Purpose The study was conducted to examine the main effects and the interaction effect of SES and JHAC on cardiovascular risk (measured by BP and arterial stiffness) in KAs. Methods Sample - 102 KAs (aged 21-60 years, 60% women) Measures - Age, gender, BMI, SES (measured by education and income), JHAC(measured by the 12-item JHAC Scale), BP, Arterial stiffness (measured by carotid and femoral pulse wave velocity [PWV]) Data Analysis - Two way factorial ANOVA and Duncan’s test by SAS 9.2. Results SBP (p=.03) and DBP (p=.01) were significantly higher in the low education group. The interaction effect of education and JHAC on SBP was significant (p=0.02), indicating that the education effect on SBP was greater in the low JHAC group. The main effect of education on PWV was not significant (p=0.64). However, the JHAC had a significant main effect on PWV (p=0.02), showing that the group with low JHAC score had higher PWV than the group with high JHAC. The interaction between education and JHAC on PWV was also significant (p=0.02), thus the effect of JHAC on PWV was greater in the low education group. Discussion The results demonstrated that the inverse relationship between education and cardiovascular measures was more severe in the low JHAC group, contrary to JHAC hypothesis. Furthermore, arterial stiffness, an important biomarker of cardiovascular disease, was predicted by JHAC, but not by education, showing the subjects with low JHAC had significantly higher arterial stiffness. This phenomenon was also more prominent in the subjects with low education. The findings suggest that JHAC has beneficial effect on cardiovascular health in KAs.