A chronological decrease in type A behavior patterns among Japanese male workers in 1995-1999.

We examined the chronological change in Type A behavior pattern (TABP) among Japanese male workers for 5 yr. A brief questionnaire to measure TABP was administered to 21,711 male workers who underwent health check-ups at least once during the period from 1995 to 1999 and were born in 1936-1965. The mean TABP scores decreased year by year linearly. Then the repeated measurement analysis of variance was performed with the data of 5,689 subjects who completed the questionnaire successively through the study period. Both year and the age effects were highly significant (p<0.001, respectively), whereas the time trends were comparable by baseline age. In conclusion, TABP among Japanese male workers decreased in all generations during the period from 1995 to 1999.