Type D Personality Associated With Increased Risk for Mortality in Adults With Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract

Type D personality has been previously shown to increase the risk for mortality in patients with acquired heart disease. We aimed to compare mortality in adult patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) with and without type D. Survival was assessed using prospective data from the Dutch national Congenital Corvitia registry for adults with CHD. Patients were randomly selected from the registry and characterized at inclusion in 2009 for the presence of type D using the DS14 questionnaire. One thousand fifty-five patients, with 484 (46%) males, a mean (SD) age of 41 (14) years, 613 (58%) having mild CHD, 348 (33%) having moderate CHD, and 94 (9%) having severe CHD, were included. Type D personality was present in 225 patients (21%). Type D was associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality independent of age, sex, New York Heart Association class, number of prescribed medications, depression, employment status, and marital status (hazard ratio, 1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-3.57; P = .033). Type D personality was associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality in adult patients with CHD.