Cardiovascular reactivity of Singaporean male police officers as a function of task, ethnicity and hostility.

Objective: This research examined hemodynamic processes in cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) as a function of task, ethnicity and trait hostility.

Method: One hundred and fourteen male patrol officers from the Singapore Police Force participated in this experimental study. Trait hostility was measured using the interpersonal hostility assessment technique to derive a hostile behavior index (HBI). Heart rate, blood pressure and hemodynamic measures were taken while participants performed three tasks: mental arithmetic, number reading and anger recall (AR).

Results: AR elicited the greatest blood pressure, vascular and cardiac output reactivity. HBI scores were positively related to systolic blood pressure reactivity during AR for Malays whereas this was not true for Indians and Chinese. Across tasks Indians with high HBI scores appeared to be cardiac reactors whereas the reactivity patterns for Malays and Chinese were undifferentiated. Self-report of negative mood was not related to CVR.

Conclusion: These results are consistent with the higher rates of coronary heart disease deaths among Indians as well as the higher rates for hypertension among Malays in Singapore.