Adulthood EAS-temperament and carotid artery intima-media thickness: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study

Abstract

We examined the association between adulthood emotionality–activity–sociability temperament scale and preclinical atherosclerosis and, whether this association is mediated by cardiovascular risk factors (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and body-mass index (BMI)). The participants were a nationally representative sample of 537 men and 811 women from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study aged 15–30 years at the baseline in 1992 and aged 24–39 years at the follow-up in 2001. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by ultrasound scans of the common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD). In men, there was an association between the temperament dimension activity and IMT (β = 0.08, p = 0.036) which was partially mediated by BMI (β decreased from 0.08 to 0.05; p-value of Sobel test = 0.002). However, after correction for multiple comparisons the association between IMT and the temperament dimension activity in men was only of borderline significance. In women, there were no associations between temperament and IMT or FMD. These results suggest that a highly active temperament may contribute to early signs of atherosclerosis in men and that body mass may mediate this association.

Keywords:

• temperament
• activity
• atherosclerosis
• cardiovascular risk

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant 123621 for L. Pulkki-Råback grants 209514, 209518 and 1111056 for L. Keltikangas-Järvinen and grants 121584 for O.T. Raita Kari and M. Juonala, and 126925 for O.T. Raita Kari), the Research Funds of the University of Helsinki (grant 490017 for L. Pulkki-Råback), the Finnish Foundation of Cardiovascular Research, Research Funds of the University of Helsinki (project number 2106012 for L. Pulkki-Råback), the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation for L. Keltikangas-Järvinen The funding sources had neither been involved in the submission of the manuscript nor in the decision to publish the data. There are no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.