Anger as a Psychological Risk Factor of Hypertension

The present research was conducted to explore the relationship of anger and its components like state-anger, trait-anger, angerin, anger-out, anger-control, and anger-expression with hypertension. Further, to explore the role of anger as psychological risk factor in predicting hypertension. A sample of 237 participants (hypertensive patients = 137; non hypertensive age matched healthy controls = 100) with age range 30 to 65 years (M = 45; SD = 8.37) was taken from outdoor departments of public hospitals. State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 1988) translated in to Urdu language by Mushtaq (2012) was used to assess anger and its dimensions. The analyses revealed significant positive relationship between dimensions of anger and hypertension. State-anger, trait-anger, anger-in, anger-control, and anger turned out to be psychological predictors of hypertension in binary logistic regression analysis. Significant differences were found on anger and its dimensions between hypertensive men and women.