Correlation between Type A behavior pattern and cardiovascular disease: type A and laboratory hyperreactors in Japanese male students

Abstract

The correlation between the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) and cardiovascular reactivities was studied in 16 Japanese male students (24.6 +/- 1.7 years). TABP was rated in 139 male students in their twenties with a Japanese version of JAS Short Form N (J-Q) and a Japanese version of Koskenvuo's questionnaire (K-Q), which is modified from Bortner's scale. A preliminary study was requested of those whose Type A scores were in the highest third or the lowest third both with J-Q and K-Q. After 29 males were recruited, 28 normotensives were invited to participate in this study, and 16 of them responded. Physiologic and biochemical reactivities to stress tasks (mental arithmetic and cold pressor) were measured as predictors of cardiovascular diseases, and the correlation between reactivities and TABP scores was examined. Blood pressures and pulse rates were monitored by arterial tonometry over the left radial artery with a CBM3000 (Nippon Colin, Aichi). Blood samples were taken through an 18-gauge butterfly needle placed in a left superficial forearm vein. These stress tasks were conducted double blindly. There was no relation between TABP scores and biochemical reactivities. Both J-Q and K-Q scores, however, correlated moderately with reactivities of systolic (r = 0.49 and 0.43, respectively; not significant) and diastolic (r = 0.61 and 0.51, respectively; both p < 0.05) blood pressures in a cold pressor test. These data support the construct validity of Japanese TABP questionnaires, and the author believes in the utility of these questionnaires.