Psychosocial factors as predictors of early onset ischemic heart disease in a sample of Pakistani women

Empirical research documents that in some cases psychosocial factors conquer greater if not equal risk of IHD. This study was conducted to infer the psychosocial factors associated with the risk of IHD in women. Case control study design was utilized to explore the association of psychosocial factors with the risk of IHD in women aged 35 to 55 years. A sample of 71 women cases diagnosed with IHD and 142 age and gender matched community controls were recruited for this purpose. Binary logistic regression analyses was conducted to ascertain the association of proposed psychosocial factors with the risk of IHD. The values of the coefficients revealed that a unit increase in score of trait anger is associated with increase in the odds of IHD by a factor of 1.21 (95 % CI 1.04 and 1.42). A unit increase in optimism score is associated with decrease in the odds of IHD by a factor of 0.67 (95% CI 0.53 and 0.83). The values of the coefficients reveal that each unit increase in score of social support is associated with decrease in odds of IHD by a factor of 0.91 (95% CI 0.89 and 0.95). The study highlights that women aged 35 to 55 years are protected against the risk of IHD, and trait anger is the only risk factor of IHD. Furthermore trait anger is modifiable and can lay directions for designing preventive cardiac interventions.