Psychosocial factors and the risk of myocardial infarctions in white women

The relationship of risk of myocardial infarction (MI) to psychosocial factors was studied retrospectively in 107 white women hospitalized with first MI's and in 218 controls hospitalized for other diseases. Medical records were abstracted and the women were interviewed. Psychosocial factors associated with MI were educational discrepancy, in which the patient had less education than her husband, household crowding and late birth order. Educational discrepancy was independently associated with MI, but household crowding and birth order seemed to act as risk factors for MI only when certain biological risk factors were also present. The findings indicate that certain psychosocial factors related to risk of MI in white males are also risk factors for MI in white females especially in association with biologic risk factors. Thus the effects of certain psychosocial factors may assume clinical importance only when interacting with an underlying disease state as indicated by the presence of major biologic risk factors.