شخصیت نوع D و عملکرد قلبی عروقی در زندگی روزمره بدون بیماری قلبی عروقی مستند

Type D personality, the combination of negative affectivity and social inhibition, is associated with poor prognosis in patients with ischemic heart disease. The mechanisms are poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to examine whether Type D personality is associated with cardiovascular function in everyday life of people without documented cardiovascular disease. Eighty-six participants (53% women) aged 27 to 60 years who reported work-related non-cardiac health complaints were equipped with ambulatory cardiovascular monitors for 24 h measuring heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. With and without controlling for age, sex, educational level, body mass index, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption, mood and social contact, Type D personality was not associated with any cardiovascular measure during the day or at night (all F (1, 79) < 1.00, p > .10). When analyzed separately as continuous variables, only the social inhibition component of Type D personality showed a tendency for an association with nighttime systolic blood pressure (F (1, 78) = 3.65, p = .06, η2 = .04). In conclusion, Type D personality generally does not seem to be associated with unfavorable cardiovascular function in daily life of people without any documented cardiovascular disease.

Type D personality is a combination of two personality characteristics: negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI) (Denollet, 2005 and Denollet et al., 1996). NA refers to the tendency to experience a range of negative feelings and emotions across time and situations (Watson and Pennebaker, 1989), while SI reflects feeling uncomfortable and inhibited in social situations (Asendorpf, 1993). The combination of these two results in enhanced feelings of distress that are not easily shared with others (Denollet, 2005). Type D personality has been associated with a poor prognosis in patients with cardiovascular disease, notably those people that have had a myocardial infarction (MI). For instance, post-MI patients with Type D personality have been found to have about a four-fold risk of rehospitalization and recurrent adverse events, such as another MI (Denollet and Brutsaert, 1998 and Denollet et al., 2000), as well as an enhanced risk of cardiac death (Denollet et al., 1996 and Pedersen et al., 2004). For a recent review on the adverse effects of Type D personality in cardiac patients, see Pedersen and Denollet (2006).