Relationship between Agreeableness and Neuroticism and Cardiovascular Disease among Older African American Men: Your Personality affects Your Health

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and major cause of disability in the United States for both men and women, and claims close to 700,000 people a year, or 29% of all deaths (AHA, 2008, CDC, 2008; Ferris, Kline, & Sinclair, 2005). The death rate due to cardiovascular disease among African Americans is 30% higher than European Americans (CDC, 2008). Understanding the cause-effect and correlation between personality and cardiovascular disease is important for the development of prevention and treatment modalities of cardiac disease (Perry, Kleppo, & Shultz, 1988; Schwarzer & Luszczynska, 2008). Insufficient research has examined the correlation between the two, although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States (AHA, n.d-b.). The term cardiovascular disease includes several different cardiac-related problems, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, hypotension, myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, congestive heart failure, and heart attack (Foreyt & Poston II, 1996). Researchers have underlined direct or indirect relationship between cardiovascular problem with dietary behavior (Jeffery, 1988), family history (Ferris, Siclair, & Kline, 2005), marital status (Campbell, 1993), and choice of lifestyle such as smoking and inactivity (Kaplan, 1988; Ockene, Kristeller, Goldberg, & Ockene, 1992). However, more research is needed to better understand the impact of personality or behavior upon the physiology of cardiac cells and cardiac problems among African American (Gottman, 2001). The research problem addressed in this study is the influence of personality on cardiovascular disease.