Consistent with prior research, a study of older men suggests that hostility can contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.
This study focused on determining how hostility impacts a group of metabolic measures, called the metabolic syndrome, that are known to predict cardiovascular disease. These measures include obesity and upper body fat distribution, insulin resistance, lipid levels, and blood pressure.
"Although hostility clearly seems to play an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease, little empirical attention has been given to the role that hostility may play in the development of the metabolic syndrome," said lead author Raymond Niaura, PhD, of Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, RI.
The researchers tested hostility, which included measures of paranoid alienation, cynicism, aggressive responding, and social avoidance, in 1,081 older men. They found that men with high hostility scores were more likely to be overweight, with fat distributed in the abdomen and upper body, as well as insulin resistant -- all factors that increase cardiovascular disease risk.
"In older men, hostility may be associated with a pattern of obesity, central adiposity, and insulin resistance, which can exert effects on blood pressure and serum lipids," said Niaura. The study results appear in the January/February 2000 issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
The association between hostility and the variables studied was not so strong that the researchers can assert that all hostile men who keep their weight down will decrease their heart disease risk.
"It is possible, though, that there exist subgroups of high hostility men for whom these relationships are stronger and for whom coronary heart disease risk factors may be reduced by weight loss and reduction in the waist-hip ratio," he said.
Niaura and colleagues also found, in accordance with previous research, that fewer years of education correlated with higher hostility levels. These results suggest "that hostility may be part of the cognitive/emotional/behavioral response to the chronic stress of low socioeconomic status," Niaura said.
Future studies should take socioeconomics, as well as stress measurements into account, in order to determine the mechanism for the relationship between hostility, obesity, and the distribution of body fat, according to Niaura.
The research was part of the Normative Aging Study conducted through the Boston VA Medical Center. Niaura’s co-authors were from University of Memphis Prevention Center, TN; Ohio State University; Boston School of Public Health, MA; University of California at Davis; Northwestern University School of Medicine, Northbrook, IL; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Joel E. Dimsdale, MD, at (619) 543-5468. Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org (202) 387-2829.
Journal
Psychosomatic Medicine