Females With Heart Problem Tend To Feel Anxious And Have Negative Feelings, Research Shows

Heart disease is very common lately. Thus, a new study has found that people that underwent mild heart disease are more likely to say that they are experiencing anxiety, negative outlook and poorer health compared to the general population. Not only that, it is also common to female compared to male patients.

In the case of mild heart disease, the blood flow to the heart has a partial blockage. Hence, people with such condition have a higher risk of serious heart problems, heart attack and, even worst, death.

The senior author of the study who is also an assistant professor of the medical and clinical psychology at Tilburg University in Netherlands, Paula Mommersteeg, shared that the perception of the overall mental and physical health, as well as the personality can have an impact on health outcomes.

Mommersteeg said that, "We were very intrigued by these sex and gender differences -- we had not thought they would be so apparent," as UPI reported. She said that because of the reality that the doctors should consider the factors such as negative attitude to be a potential risk for heart disease.

In the new study that has been published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes involves more than 500 people with mild heart disease. Also, it includes a control group of more than 1,300 people without heart problems.

The volunteers of the study were all in the age range of 52 and 70. The researchers asked them a series of questions through a questionnaire, with regards to their mental and physical health.

As follows, though the study could not prove any cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers have found that people who have a heart trouble tend to report that they have significantly higher rates of anxiety, poor health and negative emotions combined with social inhibition compared to the control group of people. In line with this, the researchers also found that females reported higher rates of anxiety and health problems compared to the male patients.

The researchers said that there were a number of factors that could have explained the gender differences. Of such, it would be the cultural and societal norms, education level, employment history, marital status and alcohol use, according to Consumer Health Day.