Chronic Stress, Depressive Symptoms, Anger, Hostility, and Risk of Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background and Purpose—This study investigated chronic stress, depressive symptoms, anger, and hostility in relation to incident stroke and transient ischemic attacks in middle-aged and older adults.

Methods—Data were from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a population-based cohort study of 6749 adults, aged 45 to 84 years and free of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline, conducted at 6 US sites. Chronic stress, depressive symptoms, trait anger, and hostility were assessed with standard questionnaires. The primary outcome was clinically adjudicated incident stroke or transient ischemic attacks during a median follow-up of 8.5 years.  Read More