Psychological distress as a risk factor for death from cerebrovascular disease.
BACKGROUND
Little is known about psychological risk factors in cerebrovascular disease. We examined the association between psychological distress and risk of death due to cerebrovascular disease.


METHODS
We obtained data from 68 652 adult participants of the Health Survey for England (mean age 54.9 [standard deviation 13.9] yr, 45.0% male sex) with no known history of cardiovascular diseases at baseline. We used the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to assess the presence of psychological distress. We followed participants for eight years for cause-specific death using linkage to national registers.


RESULTS
There were 2367 deaths due to cardiovascular disease during follow-up. Relative to participants with no symptoms of psychological distress (GHQ-12 score 0) at baseline, people with psychological distress (GHQ-12 score ≥ 4, 14.7% of participants) had an increased risk of death from cerebrovascular disease (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.32-2.08) and ischemic heart disease (adjusted HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.34-1.88). There was also evidence of a dose-response effect with increasing GHQ-12 score (p for trend < 0.001 in all analyses). Associations were only marginally attenuated after we adjusted for possible confounders, including socioeconomic status, smoking and use of antihypertensive medications.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychological distress was associated with increased risk of death due to cerebrovascular disease in a large population-representative cohort. These data suggest that the cardiovascular effects of psychological distress are not limited to coronary artery disease.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK. m.hamer@ucl.ac.uk
Mark
M
Hamer
Mika
M
Kivimaki
Emmanuel
E
Stamatakis
G David
GD
Batty
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents