PP-055 INFLUENCE OF TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER DIMENSIONS ON CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE IN TURKISH MALES

Abstract

Objective: The importance of the personality trait variables remains unclear in the patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to assess the effect of temperament and character dimensions on male patients with CAD. Methods: In the case-control study, 279 male CAD patients and 101 healthy male controls were examined using temperament and character inventory (TCI), which is a 240 question, self-reporting true-false questionnaire designed to assess the four dimensions of temperament (i.e. novelty seeking [NS], harm avoidance [HA], reward dependence [RD] and persistence [P]) and the three dimensions of character (i.e. self-directedness [SD], cooperativeness [C] and self –transcendence [ST]). CAD was defined as a stenosis at least 50% in at least one major coronary artery. Results: The CAD patients scored higher on HA, P and ST and scored lower on NS, SD and C than that of the controls. Mean age of CAD patients was significantly higher than that of the controls (50.6±9.4 vs 33.4±11.5, p<0.0001). The multiple regression model generated by excluding age and the other risk factors of CAD revealed that NS (odds ratio [OR] 0.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80-0.95, p=0.002), HA (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.04-1.20, p=0.003), SD (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.83-0.96, p=0.004) were independently associated with CAD. Conclusions: This study suggests that CAD male patients have distinctive temperament and character dimensions. Harm avoidance is associated with a higher risk of CAD, but both novelty seeking and self-directedness are associated with a lower risk of CAD.