Life event stress and myocardial reinfarction: a prospective study.
Earlier studies of life event stress in coronary heart disease (CHD) have been flawed by cross-sectional design and inadequate methods for assessing life-event stress. This 3-year prospective study of acute myocardial infarct (AMI) patients reveals significant independent associations between acute and chronic stressors at first admission, and risk of recurrent AMI and death, occurring in the 3 years of follow-up. Relative risks of reinfarction (or death from reinfarction) in the entire sample, for acute events and chronic difficulties were, 2.5 and 2.3 respectively and were statistically significant. When subjects admitted with first AMI were considered alone, relative risks were 3.1 and 4.1 respectively. The clinical significance of these findings is discussed.
Tennant
C C
CC
Sydney University Department of Psychiatry, Shore Hospital, St. Leonards, Australia.
Palmer
K J
KJ
Langeluddecke
P M
PM
Jones
M P
MP
Nelson
G
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*