Associations among behavior, personality, and traditional risk factors forcoronary heart disease: A study at a primary health care center in mid-Norway

The continuing presence of different negative emotions has been suggested a s an important factor in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). T he present study was carried out at a medical center to investigate the pre sence of negative emotions and Type A behavior in a group of 40-yr.-old men and women. The National institute of Public Health in Norway carried out t he data-collection as a part of their CHD risk factor screenings. The corre lation between hostility and total cholesterol is negative as is that betwe en systolic blood pressures and the feeling of guilt for women. There was n o further support for earlier findings of relationships between either Type A behavior pattern and negative emotions or Type A and elevated cholestero l values. A number of possible explanations are offered. In the study, asse ssment of hostility was questioned; there was possible support for poor ass essment of hostility on the Karolinska Scales of Personality employed in th e study.