Clusters of Behavioral Coronary Risk Factors in Employed Women and Men1

Clusters of psychosocial variables related to coronary heart disease (CHD) were examined in a sample of 412 university employees. Psychosocial coronary risk was found to vary along three independent dimensions: Anger Suppression, Type A/Anger Expression, and Coffee/Cigarette Use. Women scored lower on Anger Suppression, but higher on Coffee/Cigarette Use than men. When grouped by occupational category, maintenance workers tended to score higher on the dimensions of Anger Suppression and Coffee/Cigarette Use than other categories of workers. These findings show that behaviors related to coronary risk form independent clusters and may need to be considered by interventions designed to reduce CHD morbidity and mortality.