Paul E Peppard

Aims Psychological stress has been linked to lipid dysregulation with noticeable gender differences, but it remains unclear whether women are more susceptible to non-optimal lipid levels than men, when experiencing stressful life events. This study aims to examine the association between stressful life events and non-optimal lipid levels among persons with hyperlipidaemia and whether the association differs between men and women. Methods and results A nested case–control study was performed using data from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort (WSC) Study from 2011 to 2015, including 224 participants with hyperlipidaemia and without a history of myocardial infarction or heart failure. Among them, 63 participants with non-optimal LDL cholesterol or triglyceride levels were identified as cases, and 161 participants with optimal LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels were identified as controls. Cases and controls were traced back to their self-reported life events collected through the Retirement and Sleep Trajectories study during 2010–11. The association between stressful life events and non-optimal lipid levels was examined using multivariable logistic regression; confounding effects were addressed using propensity score weighting and Mahalanobis distance matching; gender differences were examined using subgroup analysis. Results showed that a higher number of stressful life events during 2010–11 was associated with greater odds of non-optimal lipid levels during 2011–15 (odds ratio = 1.45, P = 0.03) among women with hyperlipidaemia, whereas the association was not significant among men with hyperlipidaemia (P = 0.910). Conclusion Future studies are needed to examine the underlying mechanisms that explain gender differences in the association between stressful life events and non-optimal lipid levels. Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00005557