International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
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Int J Psychophysiol · May 2011
Type D personality and cardiovascular function in daily life of people without documented cardiovascular disease.
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. ⋯ 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, η(2) = .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.