Incidence of cardiac events in hypertensive men related to adaptive behavior in stressful encounters

The Serial Color Word Test was administered at baseline to 253 hypertensive men participating in the prospective cohort study of cardiovascular diseas es "Men born in 1914" in Malmo, Sweden. This test of psychological adaptati on to a stressful encounter was used to investigate whether susceptibility to stress moderates the risk of a cardiac event in association with hyperte nsion. Adaptive behavior, as measured by test performance, can be categoriz ed in two dimensions. The regression dimension refers to linear change of t ime spent in the test session whereas the variability dimension refers to n onlinear change. Both dimensions consist of four different patterns. At fol low-up (mean time = 8.2 +/- 3.5 years), the risk of a cardiac event varied between men with different adaptive patterns. One pattern, the Cumulative-D issociative pattern of the variability dimension, characterized by a discon tinuous and fluctuating time-consumption, was associated to an almost three fold risk of a cardiac event during follow-up (relative risk [RR], 2.99; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 1.33 - 6.70, p = .010) after adjustment for med ical-, socioeconomic-, and lifestyle-related factors. No association existe d between adaptive patterns and overall mortality.