Low Pessimism Protects Against Stroke: The Health and Social Support (HeSSup) Prospective Cohort Study
Open accessAbstract
Background and Purpose— The association between optimism and pessimism and health outcomes has attracted increasing research interest. To date, the association between these psychological variables and risk of stroke remains unclear. We examined the relationship between pessimism and the 7-year incidence of stroke. Methods— A random sample of 23 216 adults (9480 men, 13 796 women) aged 20 to 54 years completed the pessimism scale in 1998, that is, at study baseline. Fatal and first nonfatal stroke events during a mean follow-up of 7.0 years were documented by linkage to the national hospital discharge and mortality registers leading to 105 events. Results— Unadjusted hazard ratio was 0.44 (95% CI, 0.25 to 0.77) for participants in the lowest quartile (a low pessimism level) when compared with those in the highest quartile (a high pessimism level). After serial adjustments for sociodemographic characteristics, cardiovascular biobehavioral risk factors, depression, general feeling of stressfulness, and ischemic heart disease, the fully adjusted hazard ratio was 0.52 (95% CI, 0.29 to 0.93). Conclusions— In this population of adult men and women, low level of pessimism had a robust association with reduced incidence of stroke.
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Death due to stroke in a general community sample has been linked to lower optimism.
“Death over a 10-year span related to CVD disease in men [93] and death due to stroke in a general community sample [100] have also been linked to lower optimism.”
From Personality and Longevity: Knowns, Unknowns, and Implications for Public Health and Personalized Medicine (2011) · cites this paper as [100]
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“Death over a 10-year span related to CVD disease in men [93] and death due to stroke in a general community sample [100] have also been linked to lower optimism.”
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“…2006; Das-Munshi et al., 2008) and increased risk for developing health problems, including heart disease, stroke and cardiovascular mortality (Frasure-Smith, Lesperance, & Talajic, 1995; Nabi, Kivimaki, De Vogli, Marmot, & Singh-Manoux, 2008; Nabi, Kivimaki, Zins, et al., 2008; Nabi et al., 2009).”
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- Authors
- Nabi, H., Koskenvuo, M., Singh-Manoux, A., Korkeila, J., Suominen, S., Korkeila, K., Vahtera, J., & Kivimäki, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- From INSERM U687-IFR69 (H.N., A.S.-M.), Villejuif, France; the Department of Public Health (M. Koshenvuo), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (A.S.-M., M. Kivimäki), University College London, London, UK; the Department of Psychiatry (J.K.), University of Turku and Harjavalta Hospital, Turku, Finland; the Department of Public Health (S.S., J.V.), University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland; Municipal Health Care (K.K.),...
- Venue
- Stroke
- Published
- 2010-01
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 187-190
- ISSN
- 0039-2499 (ISSN-L)
- 1524-4628
- PMC
- PMC2884028
- OpenAlex
- W2089175692
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Stroke (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Acute Ischemic Stroke Management
- Keywords
- pessimism, optimism, stroke incidence, stroke risk, psychological factors, depression, stress, cardiovascular risk factors, ischemic heart disease, middle-aged adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Social Support, Cohort Studies, Stroke, Young Adult
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