Type A: More Heart Attack Risk, Better Survival Odds
High-strung, ambitious men with “Type A” personalities may have a greater risk of suffering a heart attack than do more laid-back males, but a study released today suggests the hard-driving ones are more likely to survive their seizure in the long run.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that competitive men are no more likely than easygoing men to die within the first day of a heart attack and are more than 50% less likely to die from heart disease later on.
“It was unexpected. The prevailing theory is that individuals who have this behavior called Type A behavior are at increased risk for coronary heart disease,” said David R. Ragland, an epidemiologist who headed the study. “One would expect this risk would continue after a person has had an initial coronary event. What we found here is exactly the reverse.”
While the findings do not dispute the theory that aggressive men are much more likely to develop heart disease, they suggest it may be counterproductive to try to change Type A men to more relaxed Type B men after they develop the disease, Ragland said.
Types Described
“Type A” refers to those who are highly competitive in work and play and who work compulsively, while those with “Type B” personalities are less competitive and deadline-oriented.
Dr. Joel E. Dimsdale of UC San Diego called the new findings “startling” in an editorial accompanying the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
However, Dr. Meyer Friedman of Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco, who helped define the original Type A concept, in a telephone interview dismissed the findings as “valueless,” saying the subjects in the study had been misclassified.
But Dr. Ray Rosenman, associate chief of medicine at Mount Zion and the director of the same study that defined the Type A concept, disagreed.
“I think the findings are completely valid,” said Rosenman, who was also a consultant on the new study.
Ragland was uncertain why having an intense, impatient personality would help someone survive a heart attack. But he speculated Type A heart disease patients may be more aggressive about seeking and complying with medical care.
