Abstract
Arterial stiffness independently predicts cardiovascular events, with psychological factors potentially contributing to early vascular alterations in young populations. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate of 153 undergraduate medical students to examine relationships between psychological stress, depression and arterial stiffness measures (brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, brachial-ankle stiffness index and ankle-brachial index) assessed via Beck's Depression Inventory and Perceived Stress Scale. Our findings revealed mild depression in 92.2% and mild stress in 83.7% of participants, demonstrating significant associations between depression scores and average baPWV (r=0.028, p=0.030), CFPWV (r=0.030, p=0.015), average BASI (r=0.085, p=0.029) and average ABI (r=0.333, p<0.001). Thus, we show that psychological screening tools may function as early cardiovascular risk markers, supporting implementation of comprehensive mental health and cardiovascular prevention initiatives for medical students.