Type A behaviour, life-events and myocardial infarction: independent or related risk factors?

The Type A behaviour pattern has been associated with the onset of myocardial infarction (MI). So too, though independently, has the presence of stressful life-events in the period preceding illness. The present paper examines the notion that persons characterized by the Type A behaviour pattern organize life-styles in such a way as to increase the probability of encountering stressful life-events. Significant correlations were indeed found between a measure of Type A behaviour and both reported frequency of life-events and estimates of the emotional impact of these, for a sample of 120 survivors of MI. While such retrospective data do not provide casual evidence that Type A behaviour influences MI by way of stressful life-events, they point the way to a future prospective test of this hypothesis.