WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) – People who blame themselves for bad events and believe that things will never change are more likely to develop heart disease than their more optimistic peers, study findings suggest.
According to a recent report in Psychosomatic Medicine, people with a pessimistic explanatory style were more likely to develop heart disease and to die of a myocardial infarction than those who shrugged off bad news with a view that things were bound to improve.
The findings support the results of previous research linking pessimism with higher levels of anger, anxiety and depression–emotions that may be risk factors for heart disease.
"Because optimistic individuals actively engage in planning and problem solving, they may experience fewer stressors, or they may have more resources with which to deal with stress," Dr. L. Kubzansky from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues suggest.
They note that optimists tend to be more social, a quality that has been linked with better health. These individuals may also be more likely to adopt healthy behaviors such as exercising, drinking in moderation and not smoking.
The results are based on information from more than 1300 healthy, white men between the ages of 21 and 80 years who were followed over an average of 10 years. Researchers used a standardized scale to rank study volunteers on their level of optimism.
There were few differences in lifestyle behaviors between optimists and pessimists, although pessimists were more likely to consume more than two drinks of alcohol per day and to have a lower level of education.
Overall, about 12% of the subjects developed heart disease over a decade, and 19% of these individuals died of a MI. Each increase in the level of optimism on the scale was associated with a roughly 25% lower risk of developing chest pain and heart disease. The most optimistic men also had a lower risk of having a nonfatal MI and dying from heart disease compared with the most pessimistic men.
The findings suggest that an optimistic explanatory style may be protective against coronary heart disease in men, the authors conclude.
Psychosom Med 2001;63:910-916.
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