Abstract

Psychosocial interviews with 2320 male survivors of acute myocardial infarction, participants in the beta-Blocker Heart Attack Trial, permitted the definition of two variables strongly associated with an increased three-year mortality risk. With other important prognostic factors controlled for, the patients classified as being socially isolated and having a high degree of life stress had more than four times the risk of death of the men with low levels of both stress and isolation. An inverse association of education with mortality in this population reflected the gradient in the prevalence of the defined psychosocial characteristics. High levels of stress and social isolation were most prevalent among the least-educated men and least prevalent among the best-educated. The increase in risk associated with stress and social isolation applied both to total deaths and to sudden cardiac deaths and was noted among men with both high and low levels of ventricular ectopy during hospitalization for the acute infarction.

Keywords

MedicinePsychosocialMyocardial infarctionSocial isolationSocial supportPopulationInternal medicineDemographyPsychiatryEnvironmental health

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
1984
Type
article
Volume
311
Issue
9
Pages
552-559
Citations
976
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

976
OpenAlex

Cite This

William Ruberman, Eve Weinblatt, Judith D. Goldberg et al. (1984). Psychosocial Influences on Mortality after Myocardial Infarction. New England Journal of Medicine , 311 (9) , 552-559. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm198408303110902

Identifiers

DOI
10.1056/nejm198408303110902