Answer to Question 1
Primary prevention focuses on encouraging people to develop positive health behaviors that will help keep them from developing CVD. For instance, public service programs that encourage people to quit smoking, eat well, exercise, monitor their blood pressure, and otherwise improve their health can all be considered primary prevention. Secondary prevention involves treating essential hypertension so that it does not develop into CHD. These attempts fall into two categories: improving health behavior and stress management programs. Tertiary prevention focuses on patients who have already had a cardiac event, such as a myocardial infarction. The goal of tertiary prevention is to prevent or reduce the incidence of recurrence. Examples of tertiary prevention include exercise programs and interventions that teach patients how to respond to stressful interactions with reduced hostility.
Answer to Question 2
Type A behavior is characterized as a time-urgent, hostile, competitive, impatient, and achievement-oriented style of responding to challenges. The classification of Type A behavior has predicted CHD in several prospective studies; however, other studies have failed to support these findings. Researchers now suggest that only one element of Type A behavior increases risk for CHD, and that element is hostility. One study found that three items reliably predicted death among men who had a history of CHD or hypertension: ease with which anger was aroused, argumentativeness, and irritability.