Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Psychology
Creator Berg, Cynthia A.; Smith, Timothy W.; Uchino, Bert N.; Hopkins, Paul N.; Yoon, Hyo-Chun
Other Author Florsheim, Paul; Pearce, Gale; Hawkins, Melissa
Title Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings
Date 2007-06-01
Description Objective: To examine the association between hostile personality traits and coronary artery disease (CAD) and the role of aspects of hostility, method of assessment, and age as influences on its magnitude, as prior studies of hostility and coronary artery calcification (CAC) have produced conflicting findings. Methods: Participants included 300 married couples (mean age = 54.4 years) free from diagnosed CAD. Participants completed four measures of hostility-self-reports and spouse ratings of angry hostility (i.e., tendency to experience anger) and antagonism (i.e., argumentative, mistrusting, and cold interpersonal behavior). Results: In hierarchical random regression models accounting for dependency between husbands' and wives' observations, analyses of log-transformed Agatston scores indicated that self-reports of angry hostility and antagonism were not related to CAC. However, spouse ratings of both anger and antagonism were significantly associated with CAC severity. Interactions with age indicated that these associations occurred only among older participants. Control of behavioral and biomedical risk factors did not eliminate these effects. Antagonism but not anger was an independent predictor of CAC when considered simultaneously. Conclusions: Hostility is associated with concurrent asymptomatic CAD as assessed through CAC, but this effect is likely to be underestimated when hostility is assessed through self-reports rather than ratings by others and in samples with lower prevalence and severity of CAC. Key words: hostility, anger, antagonism, agreeableness, coronary artery calcification, coronary artery disease.
Type Text
Publisher Wolters Kluwer (LWW)
Journal Title Psychosomatic Medicine
Volume 69
Issue 5
First Page 441
Last Page 448
DOI 10.1097/PSY.0b013e3180600a65
citatation_issn 0033-3174
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Smith, T. W., Uchino, B. N., Berg, C. A., Florsheim, P., Pearce, G., Hawkins, M., & Hopkins, P. N. (2007). Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 441-8.
Rights Management (c) Wolters Kluwer (LWW) http://lww.com Smith, T. W., Uchino, B. N., Berg, C. A., Florsheim, P., Pearce, G., Hawkins, M., & Hopkins, P. N. (2007). Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 441-8.
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 344,418 bytes
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Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6ns1c8v
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