The relation between stress and myocardial infarction: a general analysis.

The data from a retrospective questionnaire survey of myocardial infarction patients (and a control group) were analyzed for German male workers between 30 and 64 years of age, in West-Berlin, who were still at work. As a result it was shown that the risk factor model of infarction etiology must be supplemented by the elements of 'work dependency', 'reproduction dependency', and 'personality dependency'. These complexes of 'social risk factors' possess a comparable explanatory value. It is evident that (a) the patho-genesis of infarction is relatively unspecific, and (b) an explanation of infarction must include the individual stress biography, including the process of withdrawal from working life. In this context, the evidence gathered in this study of a broad population must, to a limited degree, be further differentiated in the study of homogeneous sub-populations.