Coronary-prone behavior attitudes in moderate to severe coronary artery occlusion

This study was undertaken to clarify the relationship between coronary artery occlusion (CAO) and coronary-prone behavior attitudes (CPBA) in a large coronary arteriography population. A group of 2451 male patients responded to a questionnaire prior to coronary arteriography. Ten questions from the questionnaire, selected to form a scale measuring CPBA, were found to be reliably associated with standard measures of Type A behavior. No differences in CPBA were found when the group was divided into mild, moderate, and severe CAO, but angina pectoris (AP) tended to increase from mild to severe CAO. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that CPBA were independently associated with AP but were not associated with CAO. These findings suggest that angina pectoris is an important intervening variable between CPBA and CAO and that the relationship of AP in a population should be carefully considered before conclusions are drawn as to the relationship between CPBA and CAO.