Exposure to violent crime is associated with an acute rise in blood pressure, according to new data published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study's authors hoped to learn more about how nearby violent crimes may impact a person's health. 

"Previous work has shown neuroendocrine responses to stressful events may affect blood pressure control in the short and long term," wrote lead author W. Wyatt Wilson, MD, with the department of medicine at the University of Chicago, and colleagues. "Because patients’ chronic and acute exposure to nearby violent crime events varies, acute and chronic neuroendocrine responses may vary as well and may relate to patients’ level of crime exposure. However, no studies, to the authors’ knowledge, have examined whether individuals who have been exposed to a violent incident near their home experience dynamic changes in blood pressure soon after the incident.

The group studied data from 39,211 adult patients with 227,595 blood pressure measurements. The patients were treated at one of three outpatient clinics in Chicago between 2014 to 2016.

Sixty-seven percent of patients were women, and the mean patient age was 60 years old. Forty-two percent were Black and 50.8% lived in low-income neighborhoods.

The median systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 130 mmHg, and the median diastolic blood pressure was 74 mmHg.

In the analysis, for each violent crime that occurred within 100 meters from the patient’s home, SBP rose by 0.14 mmHg within seven days of exposure, compared with 0.08 mmHg at 30 days of exposure. Among patients in affluent suburbs, systolic blood pressure increased by 0.28 mmHg for each violent crime within 100 meters and 30 days.