APA: Dealing Well With Stress Linked to Higher HDLs

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 -- The ability to cope with stress may be linked to HDLs, researchers said here.
Among older men, negative coping strategies, such as hostility and social isolation, were significantly associated with lower HDL levels compared with men who had more positive ways of dealing with stress (P<0.05), found Loriena A. Yancura, Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and colleagues.
The findings suggest that better coping mechanisms can serve a protective role in cardiovascular health, Dr. Yancura reported at the American Psychological Association meeting.
Stress has been linked to coronary heart disease risk factors in other studies while coping processes have been linked to other health factors, they noted. Hostility has been linked independently to lipids and stress and coping.
But there has been little study of them all together. In the current research, the investigators aimed to examine the complex relationships among hostility, stress, coping strategies, and lipids.
They analyzed data from 716 men who had completed a mail-in survey, an in-person interview, and a biomedical examination during the Normative Aging Study from 1988 to 1991. The participants were predominantly white with a mean age of 65.
Coping mechanisms were rated by how often the men used 26 strategies on the Brief Ways of Coping questionnaire. Hostility was measured using the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale.
Participants' stress scores were determined by their description of the most stressful problem they encountered in the prior week. They also rated how effectively they felt they dealt with the problem.
A fasting blood sample was taken at the same time as the subjective testing.
Among the modest, but significant, correlations, the findings for men who scored higher for hostility were:
Greater stress scores (P<0.01).
More use of self-blame as a coping mechanism (P<0.001).
More likely to use self-isolation to cope with stress (P<0.05).
Likewise, poor coping mechanisms were linked to HDL levels among the men.
Those who scored higher for use of hostility in coping with stress had significantly lower HDL levels and higher triglycerides (both P<0.05).
HDL was also negatively correlated with higher scores for self-blame (P<0.05), minimizing the problem (P<0.05), and self-isolation (P<0.01) as coping mechanisms.
There were no significant correlations between any of the coping subscales and LDL.
When the researchers put the three strongest predictors of HDL level -- hostility, self-isolation, and self-blame -- into a model, the significant findings included:
Hostility rose with stress.
Hostility rose with self-blame.
Higher hostility scores were linked to lower HDL.
Stress was linked to higher self-isolation.
Stress was linked to higher self-blame.
Stress was linked a feeling of less efficacy in dealing with problems.
These findings matched clinical observations, Dr. Yancura and colleagues said.
Furthermore, "the coping variables also showed the expected relationships with HDL," the researchers noted. Hostility was both directly linked to HDL and indirectly through coping strategies.
The investigators noted that their study might be of limited generalizability because the relationship between hostility, stress and other factors with lipids likely vary by age, gender, or ethnicity. Also, the study did not look at longitudinal relationships between the factors.
The researchers provided no information on conflicts of interest.Primary source: American Psychological Association meetingSource reference: Yancura LA, et al "Does Coping Mediate between Hostility and Lipid Levels? Findings from the Normative Aging Study" APA meeting 2007.