American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 143, No. 1: 63-72
Copyright © 1996 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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Type A Behavior Pattern and Change in Blood Pressure from Childhood to Adolescence
The Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study
1Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Miami Miami, FL
2Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Miami Miami, FL
Reprint requests to Dr. David J. Lee, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016069 (R-669), Miami, FL 33101
The association of the Type A behavior pattern with change in blood pressure was examined in a multiethnic sample of schoolchildren. Blood pressure was assessed in 1978 (mean age = 8 years) and approximately biannually thereafter through 19871990, when a post-high school screening was completed. The Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) was completed by the teachers of a sample of participants in 1982 (n = 502). The Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) was completed by all adolescents who participated in the post-high school screening (n = 816). Males were more likely to be classified as Type A than were females by the JAS and the MYTH. Type A status was not associated cross-sectionally with elevated blood pressure. JAS-assessed Type B males had significantly higher mean post-high school fourth- and fifth-phase diastolic blood pressures than did Type A males (70.2 mmHg vs. 68.2 mmHg, p < 0.05; 68.1 mmHg vs. 65.2 mmHg, p < 0.01). JAS-assessed Type A/B status was not associated with 10-year change in blood pressure. MYTH-determined Type B females tended to have higher diastolic blood pressures than MYTH-determined Type A females throughout the 10-year study period. Results from this study did not confirm the hypothesis that Type A participants would have significantly higher blood pressures than Type B participants at the time of Type A assessment; nor did they confirm the hypothesis that Type A participants would exhibit greater increases in blood pressure than Type B participants over a 10-year period. Am J Epidemiol 1996;143:6372
adolescence; blood pressure; child; Type A personality