A prospective study of dominance and coronary heart diseases in the normative aging study

The purpose of this study was to examine the prospective relation between d ominance, as assessed by a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMP I-2)-derived dominance scale, and incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) , independent of participants' anger level. The study was performed in the VA Normative Aging Study, an ongoing cohort of older (mean age 61 years) me n. A total of 1,225 men who were free of CHD in 1986 completed the MMPI-2. A factor analysis of selected MMPI items provided the basis for the constru ction of a dominance scale and an anger scale, During an average of 8 years of follow-up, 158 cases of incident CHD occurred, including 29 cases of fa tal CHD, 69 cases of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), and 60 cases of a ngina pectoris (AP), Compared with men reporting the lowest levels of domin ance (lower tertile), the multivariate-adjusted relative risk among men rep orting the highest levels of dominance (upper tertile) wets 1.80 (95% confi dence interval [CI] 1.21 to 3.24) for combined nonfatal MI and fatal CHD. A dditional adjustment for anger scores did not significantly alter this rela tion. There was no significant relation between dominance and AP, Our data suggest that dominance is an independent risk factor for CHD in older men. (C)2000 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.