Type A, amicability and injury: a prospective study of air traffic controllers

Recent research has suggested that only a subset of Type A's may be at higher risk for negative health outcomes. The present prospective study of 416 air traffic controllers attempted to determine if a sub-group of Type A's who were disliked by their co-workers had significantly higher risk of injury than liked A's and all Type B's over a 27-month period. Liked B's were not different in terms of injury incidence from their not liked B counterparts (mean annualised rates of injury = 1.9 and 2.1 respectively); not liked Type A's had the highest rates of injuries of any group (8.5) including liked Type A's (3.8). Some psychological instruments were useful in discriminating the Type A not liked group from their liked counterparts and from the Type B's. These discriminating variables were used as covariates to determine if the relationship between being classified a not liked Type A and elevated injury incidence remained. Multiple regression analysis showed that distress from life events and being a not liked Type A remained significantly correlated with later injury (standardised coefficients 0.16 and 0.25 respectively).