Mastery, Sense of Coherence, and Mortality: Evidence of Independent Associations From the EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Cohort Study

• Published in: Health psychology 2006-01, Vol.25 (1), p.102-110
• Main Authors: Surtees, Paul G, Wainwright, Nicholas W. J, Luben, Robert, Khaw, Kay-Tee, Day, Nicholas E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - mortality; Cardiovascular Disorders; Client Attitudes; Cohort Studies; Coping Behavior; Coping skills; Death and Dying; Demographic Characteristics; England; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Illness and personality; Illness, stress and coping; Internal External Locus of Control; Male; Middle Aged; Mortality - trends; Mortality rate; Neoplasms; Neoplasms - mortality; Personality Traits; Physical Illness (Attitudes Toward); Prospective Studies; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Self-Congruence; Sense of Coherence
• ISSN: 0278-6133; 1930-7810
• DOI: 10.1037/0278-6133.25.1.102

This study investigated the association between 2 distinct personal coping resources (mastery and sense of coherence) and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. During follow-up (up to 6 years), 994 deaths were recorded among 20,323 participants, ages 41 to 80 years, in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer Study in the United Kingdom. A strong sense of mastery was associated with lower rates of mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, after adjusting for age, sex, and prevalent chronic physical disease. The association with all-cause mortality was observed for both men and women and remained following further adjustment for cigarette smoking, social class, hostility, neuroticism, and extroversion. Analysis of the joint association between mastery and sense of coherence revealed both personal coping dispositions to be independently associated with lower rates of all-cause mortality. In addition, these data suggested that the association for mastery was specific to cardiovascular mortality, whereas the association for sense of coherence was specific to cancer mortality. These results may aid future study of coping resources as determinants of persistent well-being.