Hostility and Anxiety Differentially Predict Cardiovascular Disease in Men and Women

Consideration of the psychosocial contributions to cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains an ongoing focus of research in the behavioral sciences, with a particular emphasis on the role of hostility. There are, however, a number of inconsistent findings, and the generality of findings across genders remains a continuing concern. This article presents an emotions-theory perspective on the relation between personality and CVD and reports a test of the hypothesis that anxiety predicts CVD in women whereas hostility predicts CVD in men. Six hundred and eighty women and 415 men completed measures of traditional risk factors, emotion, and cardiovascular disease. Structural equation analyses supported our prediction. Data are interpreted in terms of their capacity to inform general psychosocial models of CVD, and implications for gender-specific intervention programs are discussed.