Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 60, Issue 3 277-282, Copyright © 1998 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Increased psychosocial strain in Lithuanian versus Swedish men: the LiVicordia study

M Kristenson, Z Kucinskiene, B Bergdahl, H Calkauskas, V Urmonas and K Orth-Gomer
Department of Environment and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkoping University, Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: Coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality is four times higher in 50-year-old Lithuanian men than in 50-year-old Swedish men. The difference cannot be explained by standard risk factors. The objective of this study was to examine differences in psychosocial risk factors for CHD in the two countries. METHODS: The LiVicordia study is a cross-sectional survey comparing 150 randomly selected 50-year-old men in each of the two cities: Vilnius, Lithuania, and Linkoping, Sweden. As part of the study, a broad range of psychosocial characteristics, known to predict CHD, were investigated. RESULTS: In the men from Vilnius compared with those from Linkoping, we found a cluster of psychosocial risk factors for CHD; higher job strain (p <.01), lower social support at work, lower emotional support, and lower social integration (p values <.001). Vilnius men also showed lower coping, self-esteem, and sense of coherence (p values < .001), higher vital exhaustion, and depression (p values < .001). Quality of life and perceived health were lower and expectations of ill health within 5 to 10 years were higher in Vilnius men (p values < .001). Correlations between measurements on traditional and psychosocial risk factors were few and weak. CONCLUSIONS: The Vilnius men, representing the population with a four-fold higher CHD mortality, had unfavorable characteristics on a cluster of psychosocial risk factors for CHD in comparison with the Linkoping men. We suggest that this finding may provide a basis for possible new explanations of the differences in CHD mortality between Lithuania and Sweden.

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