By Sola Ogundipe
Antagonistic people, at home and in the workplace, and especially those who are manipulative and aggressive, have been discovered to possess a higher risk of stroke and heart attack due to arterial thickening, over and above traditional cardiovascular risk factors, than people who are more agreeable, straightforward and compliant.

This discovery which is coming to the fore just as the world is making this year’s World Heart Day with the theme Workplace Wellness,   notes that people who tend to be competitive and more willing to fight for their own self interest tend to have thicker arterial walls, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

The study published in the journal Hypertension,  and conducted at the National Institute on Aging (NIH), in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, established that more agreeable people tend to be more trusting and straightforward and they show concern for others.

According to the study: “In contrast, those at the other end of the agreeableness spectrum score high on antagonism, are distrustful of others, more skeptical, self-centred, arrogant, cynical, manipulative, and quick to show anger.

The 2010 WHD theme according to the World Hear Federation, has the aim to promote the workplace as the ideal setting to adopt healthy behaviours in order to prevent heart disease and stroke.

The Nigerian Heart Foundation in collaboration with Costain West Africa Plc, held a Road Show in comemmoration of the10th World Heart Day 2010 with the theme: Workplace Wellness in Lagos last week. A cordial workplace relationship helps lower risk of heart problems. Photo by Bunmi Azeez.

The stusy said over the last 10 years, many businesses have recognised the importance of employee health and have committed to include health promotion in their corporate agenda. However, the findings show that it is not just employers who need to be motivated to change their behaviours or policies as  everyone can play a role in improving health in the workplace. The report argued that through employees, these heart healthy habits can reach their family and friends for an even greater impact.

The researchers wrote in their paper that while we already have a lot of evidence linking high antagonism and cardiovascular risk, what is not clear is how intermediate markers of cardiovascular disease relate to these psychological traits.

For the study they looked at data on a large sample of 5,614 people living in four villages in Sardinia in Italy to examine how trait antagonism or low agreeableness and related facets related to arterial thickening, a known risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

The participants were taking part in the SardiNIA Study of Aging, which is supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the NIH. Their average age was 42, ranging from 14 to 94, and 58 per cent were female.

The participants completed a standard personality test at the start of the study, which ran for 3 years.

The test included a six-facet measure of agreeableness that covered: trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty and tender mindedness, said the researchers in a press statement.

Measure of arterial thickening the researchers used was thickness of the artery wall in the carotid: an artery inside the neck that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the head and neck.

They examined it at the start and the end of the three years, using an ultrasound scanner that measured the intima-media thickness of the carotid at five points in the neck.