Table 3.

Hazard Ratios for the Associations of Optimism With Cause-Specific Mortality^{a, b}, Nurses’ Health Study, 2004–2012

Cause of Death	No. of Deaths	Optimism Score Quartile								P for Trend
		1		2		3		4
		HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI
Heart disease	986	1.00	Referent	0.77	0.66, 0.90	0.67	0.56, 0.80	0.62	0.50, 0.76	<0.001
Stroke	411	1.00	Referent	0.88	0.69, 1.11	0.88	0.67, 1.14	0.61	0.43, 0.85	0.014
Respiratory disease	659	1.00	Referent	0.85	0.70, 1.02	0.70	0.56, 0.87	0.63	0.48, 0.82	<0.001
Infection	185	1.00	Referent	0.71	0.50, 1.01	0.61	0.41, 0.92	0.48	0.29, 0.80	0.001
Total cancer	2,325	1.00	Referent	0.97	0.87, 1.07	0.85	0.76, 0.95	0.84	0.74, 0.96	0.002
Lung cancer	577	1.00	Referent	1.04	0.85, 1.27	0.86	0.68, 1.08	0.86	0.66, 1.12	0.179
Breast cancer	294	1.00	Referent	1.14	0.86, 1.54	1.04	0.76, 1.43	0.84	0.57, 1.22	0.698
Colorectal cancer	153	1.00	Referent	0.80	0.53, 1.18	0.63	0.39, 1.00	0.88	0.55, 1.40	0.140
Ovarian cancer	189	1.00	Referent	1.14	0.79, 1.64	1.09	0.74, 1.61	0.82	0.51, 1.33	0.828

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio.

^a Women who died within 2 years of baseline (initial assessment of optimism) were excluded from the sample.

^b Adjusted for age, race, marital status, educational level, husband's educational level, and father's occupation when the participant was 16 years of age.