Men and women who experience an increase in hostile feelings from their
late teens to their late 40s may double their risk of obesity, depression,
poor social support and achieving less with their lives than they expected,
say Ilene C. Siegler, Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center and colleagues.
Those who increased their hostility were also more likely to smoke and
have more than two drinks a day on average. All of these factors can add
up to an increased risk of heart disease, say the researchers.
The study’s findings also suggest that a person’s
level of hostility in college can help to predict unhealthy behaviors
up to
30 years
later.
“Interventions designed to reduce or — potentially more important — prevent
gains in hostility, especially those delivered earlier in the lifecycle
when they can exert a longer-term impact, may well help to reduce health
risk behaviors and thus enhance the health of the population,” Siegler
says.
“Hostility is not the only risk factor and it most certainly does
not operate in isolation; however, it would not be a bad place to focus,” she
adds.
To map out the relationship between health and hostility, the researchers
collected data on physical and mental health and personality factors for
more than 2,200 University of North Carolina college students who entered
college between 1964 and 1965. The same data were collected again in 1998.
As is typical, almost two-thirds of the alumni become less hostile with
age. About 18 percent either maintained their level of hostility or became
more hostile over the years.
People who had a highly hostile personality in college were at significantly
higher risk of smoking, drinking, suffering from depression and believing
that life, family and career were turning out worse than expected 30 years
later.
Increases in hostility over time affected even those who were not so hostile
during their college years: These gains in hostility were associated with
a higher risk of feeling socially isolated, avoiding exercise, eating a
high-fat diet and even lower income among women.
This study was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
and the National Institute on Aging.
