Hostility associated with visceral but not subcutaneous fat in women
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Hostility and visceral fat are both associated with increased cardiovascular morbi-mortality. This study was designed to examine the cross-sectional association between hostility and measures of visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat in middle-aged African-American and white women. A total of 418 (45% African-American and 55% white) middle-aged women from the Chicago site of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation participated in the trial. After adjusting for race/ethnicity and total percent fat, higher levels of hostility were associated with a greater amount of visceral fat. After further adjusting for education and multiple coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, these associations remained significant. In contrast, hostility was not associated with subcutaneous fat. The associations between hostility and measures of abdominal fat did not differ between African Americans and Whites. Hostility may modulate CHD risk in women partly in association with visceral fat accumulation.
Abstract
