EFFECTS OF DEMAND AND DECISION LATITUDE ON CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY AMONG CORONARY-PRONE WOMEN AND MEN

According to the Job Strain Model, high demand/low decision latitude jobs may be associated with increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. In further analyses of a laboratory study, the authors hypothesized that Type A behavior and/or hostility moderate the effects of demand, decision latitude, and gender on cardiovascular reactivity, a putative mechanism for the development of coronary disease. With multiple regressions, it was found that scores on the Framingham Type A scale interacted with demand and decision latitude to affect diastolic blood pressure changes, such that Type Bs in the low demand/high decision latitude condition showed the smallest increases in diastolic blood pressure. Among men, hostility accounted significantly and positively for variance in systolic blood pressure changes in addition to that accounted for by high demand. These results suggest that coronary-prone traits may potentiate, or add to, the effects that stressful environments have on health outcomes.