«Study: Distress linked to risk of death from stroke»
«Psychological distress was associated with a higher risk of death from stroke among tens of thousands surveyed in a study.
Psychological distress includes factors such as anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and loss of confidence, and is common in about 15% to 20% of the general population, according to background information in the study, which appeared June 18 on the website of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Although evidence has linked psychological distress to coronary artery disease, researchers noted a lack of data linking psychological distress with risk of death from stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases.
Researchers from University College London in the United Kingdom sought to better understand this link. They looked at data from a study of 68,652 participants in the Health Survey for England. The average age of participants was 54.9 years, 45% were male and 96.1% were white.
To measure psychological distress, the researchers used the General Health Questionnaire, a widely used measure in population studies. Psychological distress was evident in 14.7% of participants, and those reporting distress were younger and more likely to be female and from lower income groups, to smoke and to use hypertension medications.
Over an average follow-up time of 8.1 years, the researchers noted 2,367 deaths from cardiovascular disease — 1,010 from ischemic heart disease, 562 from cerebrovascular disease and 795 from other cardiovascular-related deaths.
People with psychological distress — a score of 4 or higher on the GHQ-12 — had about a 66% higher risk of death from cerebrovascular disease and a 59% higher risk of death from ischemic heart disease compared with participants with no symptoms of psychological distress (a GHQ-12 score of 0). "There was also evidence of a dose-response effect with increasing GHQ-12 score," the authors wrote, adding that the associations were only marginally moderated after adjustment for possible confounders such as socioeconomic status, smoking and use of hyperintensive medications.
"Psychological distress was associated with death from cardiovascular disease, and the relation remained consistent for specific disease outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease," Mark Hamer, PhD, and coauthors wrote.
"We saw an association between psychological distress and risk of cerebrovascular disease among our participants, all of whom had been free from cardiovascular disease at baseline. This association was similar in size to the association between psychological distress and ischemic heart disease in the same group."
The researchers suggest questionnaires could be useful screening tools for common mental illnesses to help reduce risk factors for death from cardiovascular disease.»
Para leitura do artigo em original: «Psychological distress as a risk factor for death from cerebrovascular disease»
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