HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: dc07-1945v1 31/7/1293    most recent Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Shen, B.-J. Articles by Niaura, R. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Shen, B.-J. Articles by Niaura, R. Social Bookmarking                What's this?

The Prospective Contribution of Hostility Characteristics to High Fasting Glucose Levels

The moderating role of marital status

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
² Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
³ Department of Epidemiology, Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center and Boston University School of Public Health, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts
⁴ Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Brown Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
⁵ Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island

Corresponding author: Biing-Jiun Shen, bjshen{at}usc.edu

OBJECTIVE—To assess whether psychological constructs of hostility, anger, type A behavior pattern, and depressive symptom severity 1) were associated with concurrent and prospective fasting glucose levels and 2) whether this association was moderated by marital status.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Participants were 485 healthy men ([mean ± SD] age 59 ± 7 years) without a history of heart disease, diabetes, or taking related medications in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. Their fasting glucose levels between 1986 and 1995 were examined. Hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to investigate whether hostility, anger, type A behavior, and depressive symptoms were associated with concurrent fasting glucose levels as well as fasting glucose 9 years later, controlling for standard sociodemographic and biomedical covariates, including baseline fasting glucose, age, education, marital status, BMI, total cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure.

RESULTS—Although none of the psychological variables were associated with concurrent fasting glucose, Cook-Medley hostility (β = 0.105), anger (β = 0.091), and type A behavior (β = 0.152) each were associated with prospective fasting glucose 9 years later, controlling for standard covariates. Depressive symptom severity was not associated with either concurrent or follow-up glucose levels. Further analysis showed that marital status moderated the effects of these characteristics on follow-up fasting glucose such that hostility, anger, and type A behavior were significant only among those who were not married (β = 0.348, 0.444, 0.439, respectively; all P <0.001).

CONCLUSIONS—Hostility, anger, and type A behavior appear to be independent risk factors for impaired glucose metabolism among unmarried older men.

CiteULike    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?