Psychological predictors of coronary heart diseases: the role of personality factors, stressful life events and perceived quality of social support

It is estimated that Coronary heart diseases (CHD) will be the major cause of ortality by the year 2020. The traditional factors such as age, genetics, smoking and obesity, account nly half of the variance in CHD. Therefore, regarding increasing concern about the psychosocial factors, he purpose of present study was to evaluate the role of personality, stress and social support in predicting HD.

In this correlative study, patients with CHD referred to Shahid Rajaeecardiology hospital for cardiac angiography through winter 2008 to spring 2009 in Tehran, Iran, wereselected by convenience sampling method. 150 age, gender, marital status and education matched healthy ndividuals from families of patients were selected as control group. The inclusion criteria included bsence of acute conditions such as the need for surgery, having had the willingness and ability to ooperate. Data collected using The NEO-FFI (NEO five-factor inventory) personality questionnaire, ickle's stressful life events scale and Pierce's social relation quality scale. Obtained data analyzed by ogistic regression method.

Studied psychosocial variables predicted 51.9-69.2% of CHD variance. The classification accuracy (patient and healthy) which was performed by cardiologist based on psychosocial variables was 4.3%, with 82% and 86.7% predicting accuracy for illness and healthiness. Neuroticism, extroversion, tress and interpersonal conflicts had a positive correlation with illness and a negative correlation with ealthiness, but conscientiousness and openness to experience had positive correlation with illness and egative correlation with healthiness.

In general, it seems that psychosocial factors specially personality, stress and social support ave an important role in predicting CHD.