Angina risk increases with family demands
Friday December 24th, 2010
Family demands and worries substantially increase the risk of angina, researchers said yesterday.
For six years, Dr Rikke Lund, of the Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, tracked the heart health of more than 4,500 men and women in their 40s and 50s. None had any heart problems at the start of the study in 1999.
Dr Lund said there was evidence of a link between fraught relationships and the risk of angina across all five categories, but the most substantial risks were for worrisome and demanding relationships with a partner or child, where the risk of angina was more than three and a half times and twice as likely, respectively.
Participants were asked to provide information on their heart health and on the quality of their personal relationships with an intimate partner, children, other relatives, friends and neighbours.
They were asked about the level of demand placed on them, degree of worry they experienced, or how often they came into conflict with those individuals.
Participants were also asked how much practical and emotional support those individuals in these five categories gave them.
Excessive worries/demands from other family members were associated with an almost doubling of risk. Those from friends and neighbours posed a negligible risk.
The higher the degree of worry/demand in a relationship, the higher was the likelihood of reporting angina symptoms, the authors found.
Frequent arguments with a partner boosted the risk by 44 per cent, while those with a neighbour increased it by 60 per cent.
Supportive relationships did not counter the negative effects on heart health of worrisome or demanding relationships, the research, published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, adds.
Are negative aspects of social relations predictive of angina pectoris? A six-year follow up study of middle aged Danish women and men Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health December 23 2010; doi:10.1136/jech.2009.106153
Tags: Europe | General Health | Heart Health
Printer friendly page