Hostility is associated with visceral, but not subcutaneous, fat in middle-aged African American and white women.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the cross-sectional association between hostility and measures of abdominal fat (visceral, subcutaneous) in middle-aged African American and white women. Because fat-patterning characteristics are known to differ by race, we were particularly interested in examining whether these associations were similar for women of both racial/ethnic groups.


METHODS
Participants were 418 (45% African American, 55% white) middle-aged women from the Chicago site of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Visceral and subcutaneous fat were measured by computed tomographic scans and hostility was assessed via questionnaire. Multivariate linear regression models were conducted to test associations among race/ethnicity, hostility, and measures of abdominal fat.


RESULTS
In models adjusted for race/ethnicity and total percent fat, higher levels of hostility were associated with a greater amount of visceral fat (B = 1.8, standard error = 0.69, p = .01). This association remained significant after further adjustments for education, and multiple coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. Hostility was not associated with subcutaneous fat (p = .8). Although there were significant racial/ethnic differences in hostility (p < .001) and the amount of total body (p < .001), subcutaneous (p < .001) and visceral fat (p < .001), the associations between hostility and measures of abdominal fat did not differ for African American compared with white women (race/ethnicity x hostility interaction, p = .67 for visceral, p = .85 for subcutaneous).


CONCLUSIONS
Hostility may affect CHD risk in women via the accumulation of visceral fat. Despite significant black-white differences in fat patterning and overall CHD risk, the association between hostility and visceral fat seems to be similar for both African American and white women.
Lewis
Tené T
TT
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, 60 College Street, 4th Floor, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. tene.lewis@yale.edu
Everson-Rose
Susan A
SA
Karavolos
Kelly
K
Janssen
Imke
I
Wesley
Deidre
D
Powell
Lynda H
LH
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002641:Chicago; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008593:Menopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010809:Physical Fitness; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D050151:Subcutaneous Fat / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016387:Women's Health