Impact of defensive hostility in cardiovascular disease

Among the psychosocial factors that may influence the development, maintenance, and progression of cardiovascular disease, defensive hostility as a possible risk factor has received substantial empirical support in recent years. The aim of our study was to analyze the relationship between defensive hostility and cardiovascular response to stress situations, as a better predictor of cardiovascular functioning than hostility alone. The sample was composed of 130 female university students. The Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (Ho) and the Spanish version (CRP) of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC) were used to measure defensive hostility. We used the registration system MP150 (Biopac) to measure the physiological variables throughout the 3 experimental phases (adaptation, task, and recovery). The stress task was a real exam. We expected cardiovascular responses, heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure to be higher in subjects with high hostility and high defensiveness in all 3 phases. The results reflect that individuals with high hostility and high defensiveness present the highest values in the physiological variables, thus supporting the hypothesis that defensive hostility shows the greatest predictive power in relation to cardiovascular functioning in stressful situations.