Examining the associations between private religious practices, daily spiritual experiences, and cardiovascular stress reactivity

The current study aims to examine the associations between private religious practices, daily spiritual experiences, and cardiovascular reactivity. A sample of 628 middle-aged participants was drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) 2 Biomarker Project. Participants completed a standardized cardiovascular reactivity protocol consisting of baseline, stress, and recovery phases, with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR) monitored throughout. Psychometric scales captured levels of private religious practices and daily spiritual experiences. Regression models that adjusted for baseline cardiovascular activity, age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, race, and prescription medication use, showed that private religious practices were associated with lower SBP reactivity. This indicates that those who scored higher in private religious practices were found to have lower levels of SBP responses following an acute stressor. Further, these results remained when daily spiritual experiences were added to the model. There were no associations between daily spiritual experiences and any of the cardiovascular variables. Private religious practices, but not daily spiritual experiences, are related to lower SBP reactivity in this midlife sample. The current findings underscore the importance of considering private religious practices and spiritual experiences as distinct constructs when examining health outcomes.