Type D personality and depressive symptoms are independent predictors of impaired health status in chronic heart failure

Objective: To examine whether Type D personality exerts a stable, independent effect on health status in CHF over time, adjusted for depressive symptoms. Subjects: CHF outpatients (n = 166; 75% men; mean age 66 years) completed the Type D Scale and Beck Depression Inventory (baseline) and the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire and Short-Form Health Survey (baseline and 12 months). Results: There was a general improvement in disease-specific physical (p=.029) and mental (p<.001) health over time, but Type D patients scored significantly lower on both outcomes (p <=.001). The interaction effects Type D x time were not significant, indicating stability of the personality effect. Type D patients also scored significantly lower on all generic physical (p values between .001 and .04) and mental (all p values <= .01) health status subdomains; these effects were also stable over time. Type D was an independent predictor of disease-specific mental health (p<.001), social functioning (p=.04), role emotional functioning (p<.001), bodily pain (p=.05), and general health (p=.04), adjusted for depressive symptoms, baseline health status and clinical characteristics. Depressive symptoms was an independent predictor of role physical functioning and bodily pain. Conclusions: Type D personality and depressive symptoms were independent predictors of impaired health status in CHF. (C) 2008 European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.