Social support and behavior in a stressful situation in relation to myocardial infarction and mortality: who is at risk? Results from prospective cohort study "Men born in 1914," Malmö, Sweden.

Coronary heart disease remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Much data support the view that social support is associated with coronary heart disease. Participants of the study "Men born in 1914," (414 men) were followed from a baseline measurement in 1982/83 until the end of 1996. At baseline, the men answered a questionnaire on social support and participated in a stressful test where their behavior was categorized as adaptive or maladaptive. This study examined whether social support had a prospective impact on the incidence of myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality when behavior in the stressful task was taken into consideration. The conclusion of the study was that unsatisfactory levels of social support is associated with an increased risk of incident myocardial infarction (HR 2.40, CI 1.36-4.25, p = .003) and premature death (HR 1.99, CI 1.32-3.00, p = .001) but only in men who had shown maladaptive behavior in the test.