title: The association between Type D personality and the metabolic syndrome: a cross-sectional study in a University-based outpatient lipid clinic.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Type D personality has been associated in the past with increased cardiovascular mortality among patients with established coronary heart disease. Very few studies have investigated the association of type D personality with traditional cardiovascular risk factors. In this study, we assessed the association between type D personality and the metabolic syndrome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  New consecutive patients referred to an outpatient lipid clinic for evaluation of possible metabolic syndrome were eligible for inclusion in the study. The metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) diagnostic criteria. Type D personality was assessed with the DS-14 scale. Multivariate regression techniques were used to investigate the association between personality and metabolic syndromes adjusting for a number of medical and psychiatric confounders. Three hundred and fifty-nine persons were screened of whom 206 met the diagnostic criteria for the metabolic syndrome ("cases") and 153 did not ("control group"). The prevalence of type D personality was significantly higher in the cases as compared to the control group (44% versus 15% respectively, p < 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis the presence of Type D personality was significantly associated with metabolic syndrome independently of other clinical factors, anxiety and depressive symptoms (odds ratio 3.47; 95% Confidence Interval: 1.90 - 6.33).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Type D personality was independently associated with the metabolic syndrome in this cross-sectional study. The potential implications of this finding, especially from a clinical or preventive perspective, should be examined in future research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece. p.skapinakis@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tziallas
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kostapanos
authors.forename: Petros
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skapinakis
authors.forename: Haralampos J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Milionis
authors.forename: Thanos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Athanasiou
authors.forename: Moses
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: S Elisaf
authors.forename: Venetsanos
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mavreas