Type D personality and three-month psychosocial outcomes among patients post-myocardial infarction

Citation

Williams L, O'Connor R, Grubb NR & O'Carroll R (2012) Type D personality and three-month psychosocial outcomes among patients post-myocardial infarction. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 72 (6), pp. 422-426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012.02.007

Abstract
Objective: Type D personality has been proposed as a risk factor for poor prognosis in cardiac patients. Recent studies which have adopted a dimensional approach to Type D (negative affectivity×social inhibition) found no effect of Type D on mortality, after controlling for its constituent elements. To-date, no study has determined if Type D is associated with psychosocial outcomes in post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients when conceptualised as a dimensional variable. Methods: Participants were 192 MI patients (138 males, 54 females, mean age 66.0 years) who provided demographic and clinical information, and completed measures of Type D one-week post-MI. Three months later, 131 of these MI patients completed measures of disability and quality of life. Results: Using regression analyses, adjusted for demographic and clinical data, Type D emerged as a significant predictor of disability and quality of life in MI patients, when analysed using the traditional categorical approach. However, Type D did not predict disability and quality of life when it was analysed using the interaction of negative affectivity and social inhibition. Negative affect emerged as a significant predictor of both disability (β=.433, t(130)=3.53, p less than .01), and quality of life (β=−.624, t(130)=−5.68, p less than .001). Conclusions: The results suggest that Type D is not associated with short-term psychosocial outcome in MI patients, after controlling for its constituent elements. However, negative affect was significantly associated with both disability and quality of life. Future research should conceptualise Type D as the interaction between negative affectivity and social inhibition, rather than as a typology.

Keywords
Disability; Myocardial infarction; Negative affectivity; Quality of life; Social inhibition; Type D

Journal
Journal of Psychosomatic Research: Volume 72, Issue 6

People

Professor Ronan O'Carroll

Professor, Psychology