Browsing by Subject "äärimmäinen uupumus"

Objective. Chronic stress is known to be a significant cause of disease incidence. The current study was set out to assess the relationship between innate temperament and vital exhaustion, a consequence of long-term stress. Previous studies have mostly focused on studying vital exhaustion in relation to cardiovascular disease. Among other things, vital exhaustion has been shown to be a precursor of myocardial infarction and has been associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Similarly, temperament traits have been linked to disorders and risk factors related to vital exhaustion. The direct evidence of the relationship between temperament and vital exhaustion is, however, limited. The aim of this study was to determine whether temperament, as defined by Buss and Plomin, predicts vital exhaustion. Methods. The sample consisted of 1132 adults participating in the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns (CRYF) Study. Temperament was measured in 2001 using the EAS temperament inventory. Vital exhaustion was measured in 2001 and in 2007 using the Maastricht Questionnaire. The associations between temperament traits and vital exhaustion were examined by linear regression analyses. All analyses were adjusted for the effect of gender, age, education level and marital status. In additional analyses, vital exhaustion in 2001 was further controlled when predicting vital exhaustion in 2007. Results and conclusions. Higher emotionality and lower sociability predicted higher vital exhaustion over a 6-year time interval. Lower activity also predicted higher vital exhaustion six years later, although it was not associated with vital exhaustion at baseline like the two other traits. As a whole, temperament independently explained very little of the variance in vital exhaustion when vital exhaustion at baseline was taken into account. The results suggest that temperament plays a more important role in explaining the level and stability of vital exhaustion than explaining the increase or decrease in it.