Individual differences in physiological responses and type A behavior pattern. (1/52)

The relationships between individual differences in psychophysiological responses and tendency of Type A behavior pattern (TABP) were investigated during mental arithmetic (MA) at a steady rhythm, challenging calculation (Uchida-Kraepelin serial addition test: UK test), music listening, and exposure to an 80 dB SPL of white noise. Each mental task was sustained for 5 minutes. Sixteen healthy Japanese adults, (10 males and 6 females) with an age from 18 to 36 years old volunteered for this study. The KG's Daily Life Questionnaire (KG Questionnaire) was used to investigate the tendency toward TABP, which included three sub-factors: aggression-hostility, hard-driving and time urgency, and speed-power items. Recorded physiological variables were respiratory rate (RR), skin resistance response (SRR), eyeblinks, and heart rate (HR) calculated using frequency analysis to render high frequency power (HF) and the ratio of low/high frequencies (L/H ratio). During the MA and UK tests, significant increases in HR, L/H ratio, RR occurred, while significant decreases in HF were observed. Eyeblinks significantly increased during the MA test and significantly decreased during the UK test. During music and white noise, no significant changes occurred except for SRR, which decreased significantly. The coefficient of variances in each response was over 20% for almost all variables, indicating that individual differences in the magnitude of each response were large, even if the direction (increase or decrease) of the change was the same in almost all subjects. The highest correlation coefficients (r) between the mean values of relative magnitude for each variable and TABP scores during the MA and UK tests were obtained for the L/H ratio (MA: r = 0.591, UK test: r = 0.577) and the RR (MA: r = -0.576, UK test: r = -0.511). These values were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Similar results were obtained for TABP sub-factors. Though other investigations have reported relationships between HF and TABP, we found no significant relationship. It was suggested that sympathetic nerve activity became greater for TABP individuals than for Type B individuals under stress conditions.  (+info)

Personality type and neural circulatory control. (2/52)

Psychosocial factors, including type A personality, anger, hostility, and anxiety, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Abnormal sympathetic responses to stress may help explain the link between certain behavior patterns and cardiovascular disease. We tested the hypothesis that in normal humans, type A personality characteristics are associated with exaggerated heart rate, pressor, and sympathetic nerve responses to mental and physical stress. We measured heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (obtained with direct intraneural recordings) at rest and during stress in 45 healthy subjects (19 men and 26 women, age 29.2+/-8.7 years) who had no chronic diseases and were taking no medications. Subjects were divided into tertiles based on type A scores. There were no significant differences in sympathetic or hemodynamic reactivity among the 3 different intensity levels of type A characteristics. Baseline measures and responses to stress tests were similar across the 3 groups. Sympathetic and hemodynamic changes during stress tests were also similar in subject groups stratified according to anger scale and cynicism scale. Sympathetic nerve and hemodynamic measurements at rest and during stress were not different in normal subjects with type A characteristics. Abnormalities in sympathetic or cardiovascular reactivity are unlikely to be implicated in any excess of cardiovascular disease in people with type A personality characteristics.  (+info)

Time urgency and risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction. (3/52)

BACKGROUND: Inconsistencies in the literature linking Type A behaviour pattern (TAB) to coronary heart disease (CHD) may be due to differences in the effects of various components of TAB, namely aggressiveness, hostility, ambitiousness, competitive drive, and a chronic sense of time urgency. METHODS: We investigated the association between sense of time urgency/impatience and non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) in a study of 340 cases and an equal number of age-, sex-, and community-matched controls. RESULTS: A dose-response relation was apparent among subjects who rated themselves higher on the four-item time urgency/impatience scale (P-value for trend <0.001), with a matched odds ratio (OR) for non-fatal MI of 4.45 (95% CI : 2.20-8.99) comparing those with the highest rating to those with the lowest. After further adjustment for family history of premature MI, physical activity, body mass index, occupation, cigarette smoking, total caloric intake, per cent calories from saturated fat, alcohol intake, lipid levels, treated hypertension and diabetes, the dose-response relation remained (P-value for trend = 0.015) and the adjusted OR for MI was 3.99 (95% CI : 1.32-12.0) comparing those with the highest rating to those with the lowest. CONCLUSION: In these data, a sense of time urgency/impatience was associated with a dose-response increase in risk of non-fatal MI, independent of other risk factors. Prospective cohort studies of time urgency/impatience and incident CHD events are needed to confirm or refute these observations from a case-control study.  (+info)

Modifying type A in a nonclinical population of Polish managers. (4/52)

Type A is widely treated as a risk of diseases (mostly coronary heart diseases) and stress, including occupational stress. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of intervention in modifying Type A in 25 managers in comparison with 38 Type A controls, who did not participate in the intervention. Additionally, the usefulness of the intervention was analysed when reactivity, as a temperamental dimension of Type A participants, was taken into account. High reactivity of Type A persons was assumed here as the presumed cause of the negative consequences in their health and well-being. The results showed a significant reduction in stress-related emotional symptoms, like depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem, positive affects due to the intervention. These changes with the reduction in work ambiguity were greater in high reactive Type As than in low reactive ones.  (+info)

Constructing a coronary scale for ischemic heart disease: case-control study. (5/52)

AIM: To develop a scale measuring proneness to ischemic heart disease. METHODS: Ischemic heart disease was angiographically documented in 187 men. In 187 matched controls the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease was ruled out by examination of medical records and history data, and when necessary, clinical examination and specialized diagnostic procedures. Item analysis of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) was performed on 100 men with ischemic heart disease and their male controls, and then a replication study was performed on the remaining 87 pairs. RESULTS: A Coronary Scale was constructed from 8 EPQ items significantly and consistently different between the groups. Most of these items were drawn from the neuroticism scale. The Coronary Scale yielded significant correlations with emotionally saturated psychological variables. CONCLUSION: Coronary Scale may be useful in everyday practice to select patients with ischemic heart disease and those who are at higher risk to develop disease. It could be used for detecting a high-risk group of emotionally labile subjects to concentrate efforts for prevention of coronary disease.  (+info)

Musculoskeletal symptoms and type A behaviour in blue collar workers. (6/52)

OBJECTIVE: Type A behaviour pattern, characterised by excessive competitiveness, impatience, hostility and time urgency, has been previously investigated as a risk factor for coronary heart disease. There are few studies concerning musculoskeletal symptoms and type A behaviour. Could there be a higher frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms with a more pronounced type A behaviour? DESIGN: A cross sectional retrospective study. Standardised nordic questionnaires were used for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms and the Bortner questionnaire and its subscales (1) speed and (2) hard driving and competitiveness were used to assess type A behaviour. SETTING: Factory based (a manufacturing industry where they make ventilating shafts). SUBJECTS: 58 blue collar workers (51 men and seven women). Mean age was 36.9 years. Mean employment time was seven years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Blue collar workers with musculoskeletal symptoms had a more pronounced type A behaviour than those without symptoms. RESULTS: For shoulder symptoms during the past 12 months blue collar workers had a more pronounced type A behaviour (p < 0.001). For symptoms during the past seven days the results were significant for the neck (p < 0.01), the shoulder (p < 0.01), and also for lower back pain (p < 0.05). There were no differences in age, psychosocial factors, or psychosomatic symptoms. According to the Bortner subscales, the speed subscale seems to be more important than the hard driving and competitiveness subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Blue collar workers with a more pronounced type A behaviour seem to have a higher incidence of musculoskeletal symptoms.  (+info)

Can we select health professionals who provide safer care. (7/52)

In order to improve patient safety, health services are looking to other industries' experiences and as a result are adopting a systems approach to learning from error, rather than simply focusing the blame on the individual. However, in health care the individual will remain an important contributor to safety and this paper looks at other literatures besides health to consider a number of individual characteristics and the role they might play in terms of work practices that affect patient safety. It considers the effects of a variety of personality profiles including sensation seeking, Type A, and those with high self esteem; looks at our ability to select for psychological wellbeing; and discusses the ways that psychometrics have been used in medicine to predict performance. It concludes that although rarely used, psychometrics has been shown to be useful in predicting some aspects of performance in medicine and suggests that this is an area well worth further study for the benefit of patient care. Nevertheless, we are a long way away from being able to select safer staff and should instead be developing this knowledge to enable us to recognise and address potential difficulties.  (+info)

Anger and hostility predict the development of atrial fibrillation in men in the Framingham Offspring Study. (8/52)

BACKGROUND: Conflicting findings in the literature with regard to the ability of type A behavior, expressions of anger, or hostility to predict incident coronary heart disease (CHD) have created controversy. In addition, there are no prospective studies relating these characteristics to the development of atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS: From 1984 to 1987, 3873 men and women, 18 to 77 years of age, participating in the Framingham Offspring Study, were examined and monitored for 10 years for the incidence of CHD, AF, and total mortality. Measures of type A behavior, anger, hostility, and risk factors for CHD and AF were collected at the baseline examination. After controlling for age, diabetes, hypertension, history of myocardial infarction, history of congestive heart failure, and valvular heart disease in Cox proportional hazards models, trait-anger (RR=1.1; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.4; P=0.04), symptoms of anger (RR=1.2; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.4; P=0.008), and hostility (RR=1.3; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.5; P=0.003) were predictive of 10-year incidence of AF in men. After controlling for risk factors for CHD, none of the measures of anger, type A behavior, or hostility were related to incident CHD; however, trait-anger (RR=1.2; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.4; P<0.01) was related to total mortality in men. None of the psychosocial variables were related to the 3 outcomes in women. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine and demonstrate a predictive relation between measures of anger and hostility to the development of AF in men. As opposed to type A behavior, measures of anger and hostility may be more productive avenues for research in studying the risk of arrhythmias and total mortality in men.  (+info)