[Type A behaviour pattern and hypercholesterolemia in elder patients].

To examine the relationship between type A behavior pattern and hypercholesterolemia, we recruited 109 primary hypercholesterolemic patients without treatment for hyperlipidemia (30 males and 79 females) and then classified them according to Maeda's questionnaire into two groups; type A group (16 males and 35 females, aged 73.1 +/- 8.7) and type B group (14 males and 44 females, aged 71.3 +/- 8.7). We studied serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride and BMI. Serum total cholesterol was shown significantly higher in type A group than that in type B (233.0 +/- 22.8 vs 223.9 +/- 14.2 p < 0.01) and BMI lower (24.0 +/- 3.9 vs 25.4 +/- 3.9 p < 0.05), however, there was no significant difference in serum triglyceride between two groups (148.96 +/- 8.2 vs 134.0 +/- 48.8). Although there was no significant difference in BMI, serum total cholesterol was significantly higher in the women's group and in the 60s. This study suggests that type A behavior pattern is related to lipid metabolism, however we should take gender and age into consideration to study the relationship between type A behavior pattern and lipid metabolism.