Personality characteristics influencing determinacy of day and night blood pressure and heart rate

Figures & data

Table I. Basic data of the present sample, ambulatory heart rate (HR; beats/min), blood pressure (BP; mmHg).

Men (n = 85)	Mean	SD	Range
Age, years	51	2.0	47–54
BMI, kg/m^2	24.4	2.1	22–28
SBP
24‐h	129	12.8	108–161
Daytime	135	14.3	104–181
Night	114	14.8	90–155
DBP
24‐h	80	8.4	62–101
Daytime	86	9.6	65–113
Night	69	8.9	50–90
PP
24‐h	49	6.8	38–75
Daytime	49	6.5	38–72
Night	46	8.4	35–85
HR
24‐h	72	9.3	52–94
Daytime	77	9.9	57–99
Night	62	9.2	43–89
SBP day–night, mmHg (SBP night/day)	20 (0.849)	8.9 (0.066)	− 7 to + 47 (0.72–1.05)
HR day–night, beats/min (HR night/day)	16 (0.80)	7.4 (0.083)	− 3 to + 37 (0.62 to 1.04)

BMI, body mass index; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; PP, pulse pressure; SD, standard deviation. Daytime from 08:00 to 20:00 h and night‐time from 00:00 to 06:00 h.

Table II. Personality self‐reports.

Complete self‐report	Subscale
Emotional Reactivity [18],[33] (Proneness to sustained emotional arousal in the face of stressful events) Type A Behavior [29] (Excessively time‐conscious, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive)	Large and Lasting Emotions Intrusive Emotions Anticipation Lack of Emotional Control Time‐Pressured Drive Dominant—Competitive Anger Outward Suspicious Hostility
Trait Anger STAXI‐1 [30] (Situations perceived as annoying and responding with anger)
Anger Expression Styles STAXI‐1	Anger Expressed (e.g. provoked aggression) Anger Suppressed (e.g. secret criticism) Anger Controlled (attempt to control expressions of anger)
Karolinska Scales of Personality [31],[32]	Indirect Aggression (e.g. spreading hostile gossip, angry sulking) Verbal Aggression (e.g. yelling back, quarrelling) Inhibition of Aggression (low assertiveness, e.g. quarrel is meaningless) Psychic Anxiety (e.g. lack of self‐confidence)
Brief Symptom Inventory (Psychological distress) [34]	Interpersonal Sensitivity Anxiety Depression Hostility
Sense of Coherence (World view over time: close to perceived mental and physical health) [35],[36].

Table III. Predictors of 24‐h/day/night systolic blood pressure (SBP) in multiple regression models.

	Adj. R^2, %, p for regr.	Regr. coefficient, mmHg/scale point	p‐value	Between subjects, mmHg
Independent predictors		Outcome for 24-h SBP
↑Trait Anger	25.6%, p < 0.0001	0.75	0.0013	+ 18
↑ Anger Expression Styles		0.66	0.0264	+ 13
↑ Large & Lasting Emotions		1.15	0.0380	+ 11
↓ Anxiety		− 0.58	0.0345	− 13
Independent predictors		Outcome for daytime SBP
↑ Large & Lasting Emotions	16.8%, p = 0.0006	+ 1.48	0.0184	+ 15
↑ Indirect Aggression		+ 1.43	0.0156	+ 16
↓ Anxiety		− 1.00	0.0007	− 23
Independent predictors		Outcome for night-time SBP
↑ Verbal Aggression	15.7%, p = 0.0006	+ 2.03	0.0012	+ 30
↓ Anxiety		− 0.75	0.0162	− 17

↑ denotes an augmenting, and ↓ an attenuating predictor. Adjusted R² indicates the size of explained variation in %. p is the probability of the total regression. The details of analysis are shown as regression coefficients for each predictor and corresponding p-value. Finally the estimated effect of specific predictors between subjects (= 4 standard deviations of scale points of a predictor) is shown.

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