Why the study?
Is hostile affect associated with casual blood pressure in men and women?
Is hostile affect associated with casual blood pressure in men and women?
The relationship between hostile affect and blood pressure may be non-linear, highlighting the importance of testing for curvilinear relationships in psychological cardiovascular risk assessments.
Possible non-linear hostility-BP links merit testing; leaves open curvilinear effects in psychological CV risk research.
The present study investigated the relation between hostile affect and casual blood pressure in men and women. Data were collected from two independent samples: (1) 204 university students, and (2) 175 adults from the community. Findings on blood pressure-hostile affect linkage are reported with age and body-mass index corrected values. Data were analyzed for subgroups split at the median for hostility and also for tercile subgroups. Median splits revealed no relationship between hostility and blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure tended to be highest in the medium and high hostility terciles. The diastolic pressure-hostility link in men represented a “V”-shaped curve. In women, there was no relationship. Heart rate levels were consistently unrelated to hostile affect. The importance of testing for linear as well as curvilinear relationships in future studies is highlighted.
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Linden et al. (1990) studied this question.
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