Longitudinal association between positive affect and blood lipids in patients following acute myocardial infarction

Mary Princip; Roland von Känel; Sinthujan Sivakumar; Lena Jellestad; Aju P Pazhenkottil; Rebecca E Langraf-Meister; Hansjörg Znoj; Jean-Paul Schmid; Jürgen Barth; Ulrich Schnyder; Claudia Zuccarella-Hackl

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0287166

Longitudinal association between positive affect and blood lipids in patients following acute myocardial infarction

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 2;18(11):e0287166. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287166. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cardiac Imaging, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Clienia Schlössli AG, Oetwil am See, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Cardiology, Clinic Gais, Gais, Switzerland.
⁷ Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁸ University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract

Objective: Unfavorable blood lipid profiles are robust risk factors in predicting atherosclerotic disease. Studies have shown that positive affect (PA) is associated with a favorable lipid profile. However, longitudinal studies regarding the course of PA and lipid profiles in myocardial infarction (MI) patients are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to prospectively explore the association between PA and blood lipid levels across three inv estigations over 12 months following acute MI.

Methods: Patients following an acute MI were examined at hospital admission (n = 190), and at 3 months (n = 154) and 12 months (n = 106) thereafter. Linear mixed effect regression models were used to evaluate the relation between PA, assessed with the Global Mood Scale, and blood lipid levels. Potential confounding variables were controlled for in the analysis.

Results: Higher PA was significantly associated with higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and a lower total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C ratio over time, independent of demographic factors, indices of cardiac disease severity, comorbidity, medication use, health behaviors, serum cortisol and negative affect (p≤0.040). No association was found between PA and the two blood lipids low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG).

Conclusions: Positive affect was independently associated with HDL-C levels and the TC/HDL-C ratio in patients up to 1 year after MI. The findings support a potential role of PA for cardiovascular health through an association with a favorable blood lipid profile.

Copyright: © 2023 Princip et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cholesterol, HDL
Humans
Lipids*
Myocardial Infarction* / etiology
Risk Factors
Triglycerides

Substances

Cholesterol, HDL
Lipids
Triglycerides

Grants and funding

The trial was funded by grant No. 140960 from the Swiss National Science Foundation to R.v.K. (principal investigator), J.-P.S., U.S., H.Z., and J.B. Additional funding came from the Teaching and Research Directorate, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland. The funding bodies had no influence on the study design, in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.