Pessimism associated with risk of death from coronary heart disease

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/bc-paw111416.php

Public Release: 16-Nov-2016
Pessimism associated with risk of death from coronary heart disease
BioMed Central

Pessimism seems to be a strong risk factor for death from coronary heart disease (CHD), while optimism does not protect from it, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Public Health that involved 2,267 middle aged and older Finnish men and women.

Researchers at the Department of Psychiatry, Päijät-Häme Central Hospital, Finland, found that people with high levels of pessimism seemed to have a higher risk of CHD-induced mortality, even after adjusting for known physiological risk factors. Optimism did not seem to have any effect on that risk.

Optimism and pessimism in the scientific sense focus on people's attitude towards their future - whether or not they generally expect a greater number of desirable or undesirable things to happen. Dr. Mikko Pänkäläinen, lead author of the study said: "High levels of pessimism have previously been linked to factors that affect cardiac health, such as inflammation, but data on the connection between risk of death from CHD and optimism and pessimism as personality traits are relatively scarce."

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