Correlates of the JAS type A behavior pattern score

The Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), a self-administered and machine-scored questionnaire designed to assess the Type A behavior pattern described by Rosenman and Friedman, was included in an industry-based CHD risk factor screening program in the Chicago area. Data on 4108 white persons age 25–64 yr, categorized into four sex age groups, have been analyzed to investigate the relationship of the JAS Type A score to sex, age, socio-economic status (SES), CHD risk factors, prevalence of myocardial infarction, and compliance with recommendation to obtain followup medical evaluation. The following results were obtained. 1. 1. The Type A score is positively correlated with SES in all four sex age groups. 2. 2. After controlling SES, men do not differ significantly in mean Type A score from women, but both men and women age 45–64 yr have lower mean Type A scores than men and women age 25–44 yr. 3. 3. The number of cigarettes smoked per day is positively correlated with Type A score in men and younger women, but the magnitude of the correlation is very small. 4. 4. Prevalence of high blood pressure, defined as having elevated pressure or being treated medically for high blood pressure, is unrelated to Type A score in men and younger women but positively related in middle-age women after controlling for age, relative weight, and SES. 5. 5. The Type A score is weakly related to prevalence of hypercholesterolemia only in the total group of men age 25–44 yr; it is unrelated in older men and in women. Among persons not under medical treatment for CHD risk factors and without evidence of myocardial infarction, the Type A score is unrelated to concentration of serum cholesterol. 6. 6. The Type A score is unrelated to level of serum uric acid, plasma glucose after challenge, or relative weight. 7. 7. Compliance with a recommendation to obtain medical evaluation of suspect screening test results is unrelated to Type A score. 8. 8. Prevalence of myocardial infarction, as evidenced by Q-waves on the ECG or by history of physician-diagnosed heart attack, is positively related in middle-age men to Type A score after taking age, diastolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and cigarette smoking into account.