), having an additional vacation during the study phase, change of antihypertensive medication in the study phase, and taking sedatives during the study phase. Forty-eight individuals (32 women, 16 men, age 40–83 years) participated in the study. The average weekly work hours of the 34 occupationally active individuals was 39.3

(SD 14.4) hours, 11 individuals reported having shift work, 12 individuals had blue-collar, and 22 white-collar occupations. Those 11 individuals who knew the resort from a previous stay had not been there for at least 2 years. Means and standard deviations of variables characterizing ZD1839 the study participants are provided in Table 1. Individuals received an automatic BP monitor (Boso medicus PC from BOSO Ltd, Vienna, Austria) 3 weeks prior to the stay at the health resort and were instructed in its use. BP was measured by oscillotonometry via a cuff placed on the left upper arm above the elbow. They were asked to measure BP three times daily, before breakfast, before supper at around 6 pm, and before going to bed in a sitting position after a 2-minute rest.[28] The BP readings and the time of measurement were stored by the device and uploaded onto a PC.

Home BP monitoring click here has been found to be a reliable approach in assessing BP.[29, 30] In addition, study participants received a diary to be filled out every morning throughout the duration of the study. The diary was also returned at the end of the study. Participants started keeping the diary and measuring BP exactly 21 days prior to their scheduled stay in Bad Tatzmannsdorf and continued data acquisition during their 21-day stay and 21 days after returning home. Study participants had personal contact to a study assistant, a health psychologist, at the beginning and end of the study, and at study midterm to sustain adherence to the study regime. For this study, only the data of the first 26 days of the study (home phase and the first 5 d of the stay at the health resort) were used. Study participants traveled to the health resort in the morning or

at mid-day and arrived in the early afternoon. Travel days were Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Most individuals drove in their own car (58.8%) or see more were driven by family members (20.6%); some individuals used public transportation (20.6%). Average travel duration was around 83 minutes and did not significantly vary between types of transportation (p > 0.76). Travel was not experienced as stressful as assessed with a worded scale with a range of 1 to 4. Perceived travel strain was 1.2 (SD 0.4), 1.1 (SD 0.4), and 1.7 (SD 0.8) for driving oneself, being driven, or using public transportation, respectively, and also did not differ significantly between types of transportation (p = 0.06). The perceived travel strain measure is described in the variable section in more detail.