Relationship Between Personality and Self-Measured Blood Pressure Value at Home: The Ohasama Study

Abstract

We conducted a cross-sectional community survey in northern Japan to assess the relationship between personality and home blood pressure value. The Japanese version of the short-form Eysenck personality questionnaire was used to assess personality. A total of 999 people selected from the general population participated. We showed that the personality extroversion score positively affected the systolic blood pressure value, whereas no significant relationship was observed between personality psychoticism or neuroticism and blood pressure value. This study is the first to clarify the relationship between personality assessed by the Eysenck personality questionnaire and blood pressure measured in a non-medical setting. When physicians investigate the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, they should take psychological factors into consideration, as well as the many environmental and genetic factors.

Social support and trait personality are independently associated with resting cardiovascular function in women

“…Individuals high in psychoticism are also thought to experience greater number of negative life events (Pickering et al, 2003), which may result in elevated physiological function in comparison with individuals experiencing low stress, or alternatively, lower arousal levels owing to habituation to recurring stress. Studies examining resting blood pressure specifically are equivocal, with one study sampling a Japanese cohort (using the Japanese EPQ) indicating that psychoticism is unrelated to selfmeasured resting BP (Hozawa et al, 2002), while Coelho et al (1999) reported that lower psychoticism was related to lower ambulatory BP in white-coat hypertensives. As such, methodological differences may account for the mixed links between psychoticism and BP.…”

Introversion associated with large differences between screening blood pressure and home blood pressure measurement: the Ohasama study

“…Among 1619 participants (42% men and 58% women, mean age 62.9 years) who measured their home blood pressure more than three times during the 4-week study period from 1997 to 1999, 999 (60%) answered all 48 items of the short EPQ-R and 699 underwent screening blood pressure in screening settings. Details of participant selection have been described previously [13,14]. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.…”

Association Between Extraversion Personality With the Blood Pressure Level in Adolescents

“…Similarly, another cross-sectional study also found that work-related stress was positively associated with cardiovascular risk among employees of a logistics company for safety in communications and flight ( 17 ). However, a few studies evaluated the impact of personality characteristics on the BP level ( 13 , 20 , 21 ). For example, Hozawa et al found that the extraversion score was positively correlated with the systolic BP level ( 20 ), whereas the other two studies reported that extroversion personality was negatively associated with the BP level ( 13 , 22 ).…”

“…However, a few studies evaluated the impact of personality characteristics on the BP level ( 13 , 20 , 21 ). For example, Hozawa et al found that the extraversion score was positively correlated with the systolic BP level ( 20 ), whereas the other two studies reported that extroversion personality was negatively associated with the BP level ( 13 , 22 ). Because earlier studies mainly included a limited sample size in adults or special populations, the results were controversial ( 13 , 20 , 22 , 23 ).…”