Two-hundred-fifty CHD cases and 500 matched controls from the Western Collaborative Group Study were studied to assess the 8.5-yr prospective relationship of specific behavioral dimensions to the incidence of coronary heart disease. Type A structured interviews administered at intake were reevaluated in terms of 12 operationally defined components, which include previously described facets of the Type A behavior pattern. Univariate risk analyses using the matched logistic model found hostility (RR = 1.92, p less than 0.001), speaking rate (RR = 1.66, p = 0.003), immediateness (RR = 1.62, p = 0.009), competitiveness (RR = 1.50, p = 0.013), and Type A content (RR = 1.38, p = 0.045) to be significantly related to CHD incidence. Of these, only hostility remained a significant risk factor (RR = 1.93, p less than 0.001) when all 12 components were included in the model. The original Type A global ratings and traditional CHD risk factors were also analyzed in conjunction with the components. The Type A behavior pattern comprises both benign and coronary-prone facets, with the latter most exemplified by hostility.

The purpose of the present study was to empirically identify individuals who differed in their patterns of components derived from the structured interview (SI), and to evaluate whether individuals characterized by the different patterns varied in terms of their risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). The present study represents a reanalysis of data from the Western Collaborative Group Study in which components of Type A were individually related to risk for CHD. Subgroups of individuals who differed in the patterns of their component scores were identified by means of cluster analytic techniques and were found to vary in their risk of CHD. As expected, a pattern of characteristics in which hostility was salient was found to be predictive of CHD. Moreover, another pattern of characteristics that appears to reflect pressured, controlling, socially dominant behavior in which hostility was not salient also was found to be predictive of CHD. Further, two patterns of characteristics were identified that were unrelated to CHD risk. Finally, two patterns of characteristics were identified that were related to reduced risk of CHD. Overall, these results suggest that future research should investigate variables in addition to hostility in regard to risk for and protection from CHD.

In order to induce stress in an experimental subject, a task involving the addition of numbers under time pressure was developed. The subject was required to read six meters and to announce the sum of his readings, together with a test phrase. By controlling the duration of the meter display, the experimenter could vary the level of stress induced in the subject. For each of 10 subjects, numerous verbal responses were obtained while the subject was under stress and while he was relaxed. Contrasting responses containing the same test phrase were assembled into paired-comparison listening tests. Listeners could identify the stressful responses of some subjects with better than 90% accuracy and of others only at chance level. The test phrases from contrasting responses were analyzed with respect to level and fundamental frequency, and spectrograms of these test phrases were examined. The results indicate that task-induced stress can produce a number of characteristic changes in the acoustic speech signal. Most of these changes are attributable to modifications in the amplitude, frequency, and detailed waveform of the glottal pulses. Other changes result from differences in articulation. Although the manifestations of stress varied considerably from subject to subject, the test phrases of most subjects exhibited some consistent effects.

Speech samples of five patients with cancer of the vocal folds and five individually matched normal speakers were analyzed with respect to: (1) maximum rate of change of fundamental frequency, (2) fundamental-frequency perturbations related to specific consonants, (3) two perturbation factors, and (4) frequency distribution of fundamental frequency. It was found that most of these measures differentiated the pathological and normal speakers. The reliability and possible usefulness of each measure for detecting laryngeal cancer are discussed.