ARE ABNORMAL GASTROFIBERSCOPIC FINDINGS RELATED TO HOSTILITY WITH POOR SOCIAL SUPPORT OR TO NEGATIVE RESPONSES TO STRESS

Recent studies have highlighted physiological effects of emotional str ess presumably leading to gastrointestinal disease. This study examine d the effects of stress (hostility) and coping (social support and neg ative responses to stress) on asymptomatic gastric diseases, We invest igated whether gastrofiberscopic findings were related to stress and c oping in 269 volunteers without gastrointestinal complaints. These sub jects were taking part in primary health care assessments. Analysis of variance found that volunteers with abnormal gastrofiberscopic findin gs (i.e., erosions and/or ulceration) demonstrated significantly highe r hostility and lower social support scores than those without abnorma l Endings. Analysis of covariance found that abnormal gastrofiberscopi c findings remained significantly related to hostility scores after co ntrolling for hostility's correlations with social support and negativ e responses to stress, The results suggest that hostility, along with poor social support or negative responses to stress, is associated wit h asymptomatic gastric disease. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science In c.