DENVER — Age and low hostility are independent predictors of poor blood pressure in women over a 10-year period, suggesting a link between certain personality traits and disease development, Jocelyne Leclerc reported in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.
Ms. Leclerc and her colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, compared the results of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and personality questionnaires of 112 healthy adults at baseline and after 10 years. The study group included 54 men and 63 women; the average age was 40 years at baseline. Average blood pressure monitoring was done on predetermined days when the patients did not expect significant stressful events. Overall, blood pressure and personality traits were stable over the 10 years. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were significantly correlated with depression at baseline. Baseline hostility predicted increased DBP 10 years later; baseline SBP predicted hostility later.
Gender and family history may moderate the impact of personality on blood pressure, they said (Pers. Individ. Diff. 2006;40:1313–21). Increased age and low hostility significantly predicted SBP in women, while high levels of self-deception were the only significant predictors of SBP and DBP over time in men. The observation of low hostility in women predicting high BP suggests a need to consider “possibly differential adaptiveness of the same personality features of women and men.” In those with a family history of high blood pressure, age and high levels of self-deception were significant SBP predictors, and self-deception was the lone significant DBP predictor. In those without a family history of high blood pressure, only age was a significant SBP predictor. No variables were significant DBP predictors.