The Relationship of Psychosocial Factors to Blood Pressure

Lee, Choong Won; Lee, Sung Kwan

Abstract

Questionnaires and blood pressure measurements were administered to 279 medical school undergraduates in 1987 to investigate the relationship between psychosocial factors and blood pressure as well as reliability and validity of the Framingham Type A Behavior Scale(FTA). The reliability coefficients of SCL-90-R and FTA measured by Spearman-Brown haves split test were 0.57-0.91, The factors of FTA extracted by principal component analysis were hard-driving competitiveness factor and impatience factor(2-factor solution). The total score of FTA was positively correlated with relative weight and place raised but the correlations were insignificant, and had significantly positive but weak correlations with depression, anxiety hostility, paranoid, and psychoticism subscales of SCL-90-R. In the univariate analysis of blood pressures, relative weight and family history were significant in systolic pressure in males and economic status was significant in blood pressures in both sexes. For diastolic pressure, relative weight and frequency of alcohol intake were significant in males and relative weight was in females. After controlling relative weight, the frequency of alcohol intake for diastolic pressure and economic status for systolic pressure were significant in males. The important variables selected by stepwise regression analysis were relative weight and economic status for systolic pressure of males and relative weight and the frequency of alcohol to the model, changing coefficient of determination 0.206 to 0.217. In females, economic status and relative weight were selected for systolic pressure and for diastolic pressure body mass index alone, but the model of blood pressure for females was considered to be unstable due to small sample size(56). FTA was unrelated to the blood pressures in both sexes.