Emotion-related personality traits in hypertensive patients — pilot study

Abstract

Background There is strong empirical evidence confirmingthe association of personality traits to the experiencedstress and the stress to hypertension. It is suggested thatthe tendency to experience negative emotions is a factormediating between personality traits and the developmentof hypertension. The aim of this study was to assess selectedemotion-related personality traits in men with hypertension.

Material and methods A group of 31 patients with hypertensionfrom the Internal Medicine Ward of the Navy Hospitalin Gdansk was compared with 32 men in the controlgroup. The groups did not differ in sex, age, education andplace of residence. Emotion-related personality traits weremeasured using the following psychometric tools: EASTemperament Questionnaire of Buss and Plomin, BrzezińskiEmotional Control Questionnaire and Scale TypeA — Framingham.Results As expected, the results of the comparison betweenthe group of patients from the Cardiology Wardand the control group showed significant differences inthe two temperamental traits: distress (10.42 ± 3.09 v. 8.45± 2.47, p < 0.01) and anger (11, 94 ± 3.29 v. 9.88 ± 3.48,p < 0.05). As far as the dimensions of emotional controlare concerned, persons with hypertension obtained higherscores than men in the control group only in the situationcontrol (22.48 ± 3.13 v. 20.75 ± 3.52, p <0.05). With regardto the type A personality traits significant differenceswere noted in the competitive component (0.59 ± 0.3v. 0.40 ± 0.22, p < 0.05).

Conclusions The results conform with the coherent pictureof the emotional functioning of a man with hypertensionas a person with a high predisposition to react with distressand anger, to maintain control in emotion-related situations,especially avoiding failures, and also characterizedby a tendency to competitiveness and hostility.