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Associations of anger, anxiety, and depressive symptoms with carotid arterial wall thickness: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Associations of anger, anxiety, and depressive symptoms with carotid arterial wall thickness: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis

Tetsuya Ohira, Ana V Diez Roux, Joseph F Polak, Shunichi Homma, Hiroyasu Iso and Bruce A Wasserman
Psychosomatic medicine, v 74(5), pp 517-525
Jun 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31824f6267
PMID: 22511725
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4966673View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Aged Aged, 80 and over Anger Anxiety Atherosclerosis - epidemiology Atherosclerosis - pathology Atherosclerosis - psychology Carotid Arteries - pathology Carotid Artery Diseases - epidemiology Carotid Artery Diseases - pathology Carotid Artery Diseases - psychology Carotid Intima-Media Thickness - psychology Carotid Intima-Media Thickness - statistics & numerical data Continental Population Groups - psychology Continental Population Groups - statistics & numerical data Depression - epidemiology Epidemiologic Methods Female Humans Male Middle Aged Sex Distribution United States - epidemiology
Carotid arterial wall thickness, measured as intima-media thickness (IMT), is an early subclinical indicator of cardiovascular disease. Few studies have investigated the association of psychological factors with IMT across multiple ethnic groups and by sex. We included 6561 men and women (2541 whites, 1790 African Americans, 1436 Hispanics, and 794 Chinese) aged 45 to 84 years who took part in the first examination of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Associations of trait anger, trait anxiety, and depressive symptoms with mean values of common carotid artery (CCA) and internal carotid artery (ICA) IMTs were investigated using multivariable regression and logistic models. In age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity-adjusted analyses, the trait anger score was positively associated with CCA and ICA IMTs (mean differences per 1-standard deviation increment of trait anger score were 0.014 [95% confidence interval {CI} = 0.003-0.025, p = .01] and 0.054 [95% CI = 0.017-0.090, p = .004] for CCA and ICA IMTs, respectively). Anger was also associated with the presence of carotid plaque (age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity-adjusted odds ratio per 1-standard deviation increase in trait anger = 1.27 [95% CI = 1.06-1.52]). The associations of the anger score with thicker IMT were attenuated after adjustment for covariates but remained statistically significant. Associations were stronger in men than in women and in whites than in other race/ethnic groups, but heterogeneity was only marginally statistically significant by race/ethnicity. There was no association of depressive symptoms or trait anxiety with IMT. Only one of the three measures examined was associated with IMT, and the patterns seemed to be heterogeneous across race/ethnic groups.

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32 citations in Web of Science
33 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
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