Handbook of Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality  in the United States and worldwide. It is well recognized that  traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease have limited  predictive utility in the identification of new cardiovascular disease  cases and outcomes. Thus, investigators have argued that application of a  biopsychosocial research paradigm in this field may be of particular  utility in understanding cardiovascular disease pathogenesis.  Accordingly, a subdiscipline within the field of behavioral medicine –  cardiovascular behavioral medicine – examines interrelations among  biological, behavioral, psychological, social, and environmental factors  in cardiovascular health and disease.

In  1989, Schneiderman and colleagues published a seminal work entitled  "Research Methods in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine." Since that  time, there has been an exponential increase in the amount and scope of  work in this topic area, but no similar edited volume has been  undertaken. The present handbook provides a compendium of work in the  field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, the purposes of which are  to summarize research in this area, promote transdisciplinary research  and clinical practice, and encourage researchers and clinicians to  consider all relevant facets of the disease process in their evaluation  and study of cardiovascular disease pathogenesis and outcomes.

This  handbook has four sections: Section I provides perspectives on the  past, present, and future of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, an  overview of basic cardiovascular anatomy and physiology, cardiovascular  disease classification, and application of the biopsychosocial model to  the study of cardiovascular disease. Section IIcovers risk factors for  cardiovascular disease from a behavioral medicine perspective, including  sociodemographic, behavioral, psychosocial, biomedical,  psychophysiological, and environmental risk factors for cardiovascular  disease.These chapters offer a discussion of construct definitions,  measurement issues, and epidemiological evidence for relations to  cardiovascular disease.  Section III offers review of multi-level  influences in specific cardiovascular disease entities, the evidence-  base for relevant biopsychosocial interventions, evaluation of the  impact of cardiovascular diseases on behavior, and consideration of  common co-morbidities. Section IV covers select statistical and  bioethical topics relevant to the field of cardiovascular behavioral  medicine.

This volume is unique in several respects.  First, there is no similar work available in terms of the scope of topic  coverage. Second, the inclusion of relevant measurement issues and  construct definitions of a comprehensive set of risk factors will be of  great assistance to researchers and clinicians in this area who wish to  improve their assessment of these variables yet are not familiar with or  trained in the various methodologies. Third, the use of  multidisciplinary contributors enhances the utility of the work.  Representative disciplines include psychology, psychiatry, medicine  (e.g., cardiology), nursing, epidemiology, and public health. The  primary audiences for this work are researchers, clinicians, and  students in each of these disciplines.