The outstanding design and methods of the Framingham Offspring Study offers the next major step in understanding how behavioral, psychological, and social factors not only contribute to health and illness, but also interact with biological factors to influence health outcomes. A unique data set of social, psychological, and behavioral measures were collected at the third examination of the Offspring Study from 1984 through 1987 (which results in 14 to 17 years of follow-up). Hypotheses for this research are focused toward understanding the sex and age differences in the effects these variables have on health endpoints. The research questions involve the prediction of three separate endpoints: incidence of coronary heart disease; the incidence and prognosis of atrial fibrillation; and total mortality. The analyses of psychosocial predictors for these outcomes are divided into four conceptual areas: 1) occupational status and strain, income, and employment status; 2) type A behavior, expressions of anger, hostility, and rate; 3) symptoms of depression, tension, anxiety, and feelings of aloneness; and 4) marital relationships and marital strain. These psychosocial variables will be analyzed jointly with the physiological risk factors collected at the same time to assess independence and interaction of effects. To date these psychosocial data have not been analyzed or published. There are many studies that have examined the associations between psychological and social characteristics and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Findings from these studies, however, are often conflicting and may result from inadequate study designs (e.g., case-control where psychosocial assessment takes place after the health event of interest), use of different measures or scales, study of non-comparable populations, or defining different outcomes. The strength of the Framingham Study involves longitudinal data collection; large numbers of both men and women; a standard and thorough follow-up protocol; careful assessment of heart disease and mortality endpoints; collection of information on other risk factors for disease and death concurrently with psychosocial risk factors (enabling the examination of and control for confounding or causal pathways); and the ability to examine the inter-relationships between a number of different psychosocial risk factors.
| Eaker, Elaine D; Sullivan, Lisa M; Kelly-Hayes, Margaret et al. (2007) Marital status, marital strain, and risk of coronary heart disease or total mortality: the Framingham Offspring Study. Psychosom Med 69:509-13 |
| Eaker, Elaine D; Sullivan, Lisa M; Kelly-Hayes, Margaret et al. (2005) Tension and anxiety and the prediction of the 10-year incidence of coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, and total mortality: the Framingham Offspring Study. Psychosom Med 67:692-6 |
| Eaker, Elaine D; Sullivan, Lisa M; Kelly-Hayes, Margaret et al. (2004) Does job strain increase the risk for coronary heart disease or death in men and women? The Framingham Offspring Study. Am J Epidemiol 159:950-8 |
| Eaker, Elaine D; Sullivan, Lisa M; Kelly-Hayes, Margaret et al. (2004) Anger and hostility predict the development of atrial fibrillation in men in the Framingham Offspring Study. Circulation 109:1267-71 |
