title: The relationship of Type A behavior and its components to all-cause mortality in an elderly subgroup of men from the Western Collaborative Group Study.
abstract: This study examined prospectively the relationship of Type A behavior and its components to all-cause mortality in 1,118 men (age 60 to 86) who participated in a 27-year follow-up examination of the Western Collaborative Group Study. Global Type A/B behavior was assessed in these subjects using a modified version of the Structured Interview. Additional psychological data that related to this construct were obtained from self-report questionnaires. The relationship of these data, controlling for other biological risk factors, to 6-year all-cause mortality was investigated by means of a tree-structured survival analysis (TSSA). Using age, Type A behavior, Cook-Medley hostility, ever smoking, and cancer status at follow-up, TSSA identified 6 subgroups that differed in survival rates and associated risk factor profiles. The most favorable survival was experienced by 2 subgroups, one composed of older Type A subjects who scored the lowest on anger-hostility and depression, the other consisting entirely of Type B subjects who had never smoked. The worst survival was experienced by subjects with diagnosed cancer at the 27-year follow-up, and intermediate survival rates were experienced by 3 subgroups that differed markedly on age, smoking, Type A/B behavior, and Cook-Medley hostility. The present study is the first to characterize Type A's with favorable and unfavorable survival rates among the elderly.
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carmelli
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Swan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000786:Anger; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002423:Cause of Death; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014434:Type A Personality