A new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that experiencing financial exploitation, fraudulent schemes, and scams may raise a person’s blood pressure, especially in later life. A key difference in the findings was that fraud victimisation was linked with elevated blood pressure in men, but not in women.
Instead of focusing on subjective measures of health after fraud vicitimisation, this study included objective measures of physical health, specifically, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure. Chronic elevation of these measures are known to contribute to end organ damage including stroke, cardiovascular disease morbidity, and mortality.
The study participants consisted of 1200 older adults from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. During up to 11 years of annual observations, participants were asked about fraud victimisation and underwent serial blood pressure measurements.
In men, blood pressure elevations were observed after they had been the victims of fraud. Those elevations, compounded over time, could indicate future poor health. The rise in blood pressure persisted for years after the fraud had taken place, especially in old age.
“These findings show that fraud victimisation has important public health consequences and underscore the need for efforts to prevent exploitation,” said lead author Melissa Lamar, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center.
Source: Wiley
