Life events before myocardial infarction.

One-hundred and-twenty-one men between the ages of 35 and 65 who had been admitted to a Coronary Care Unit were interviewed within a mean of 2.3 days of that admission, concerning their experience of certain specified predesignated life events in the previous three months before myocardial infarction. Ninety-one of them who were proven to have sustained a myocardial infarction were randomly matched individually with 91 men from an industrial payroll for sex, age and occupational level. Both groups matched, as groups, on marital status and household size. Significantly more patients (p less than .01) than comparison subjects reported these life events in the three weeks before infarction, whether this was experienced acutely or in an anginal setting. Most events were apparently independent of patients' or comparison subjects control; these were reported significantly more often by patients, both during the entire 12 weeks prior to illness (p less than .01) and during the three weeks immediately before infarction (p less than .02). Methodological difficulties are delineated which hinder credence as to the role of life events before illness.