OBJECTIVE: This study examines how the social environment is related to allostatic load (AL), a multisystem index of biological risk. METHOD: A national sample of adults (N = 949) aged 34-84 rated their relationships with spouse, family, and friends at 2 time points 10 years apart. At the second time point, participants completed a biological protocol in which indices of autonomic, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic function were obtained and used to create an AL summary score. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the associations among 3 aspects of social relationships-social support, social negativity, and frequency of social contact-and AL. RESULTS: Higher levels of spouse negativity, family negativity, friend contact, and network level contact were each associated with higher AL, and higher levels of spouse support were associated with lower AL, independent of age, sociodemographic factors, and health covariates. Tests for age interactions suggested that friend support and network support were each associated with higher AL among older adults, but at younger ages there appeared to be no association between friend support and AL and a negative association between network support and AL. For network negativity, there was a marginal interaction such that network negativity was associated with higher AL among younger adults but there was no association among older adults. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that structural and functional aspects of the social environment are associated with AL, and extend previous work by demonstrating that these associations vary based on the type of relationship assessed and by age. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
OBJECTIVE: This study examines how the social environment is related to allostatic load (AL), a multisystem index of biological risk. METHOD: A national sample of adults (N = 949) aged 34-84 rated their relationships with spouse, family, and friends at 2 time points 10 years apart. At the second time point, participants completed a biological protocol in which indices of autonomic, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic function were obtained and used to create an AL summary score. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the associations among 3 aspects of social relationships-social support, social negativity, and frequency of social contact-and AL. RESULTS: Higher levels of spouse negativity, family negativity, friend contact, and network level contact were each associated with higher AL, and higher levels of spouse support were associated with lower AL, independent of age, sociodemographic factors, and health covariates. Tests for age interactions suggested that friend support and network support were each associated with higher AL among older adults, but at younger ages there appeared to be no association between friend support and AL and a negative association between network support and AL. For network negativity, there was a marginal interaction such that network negativity was associated with higher AL among younger adults but there was no association among older adults. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that structural and functional aspects of the social environment are associated with AL, and extend previous work by demonstrating that these associations vary based on the type of relationship assessed and by age. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
Authors: B H Brummett; J C Barefoot; I C Siegler; N E Clapp-Channing; B L Lytle; H B Bosworth; R B Williams; D B Mark Journal: Psychosom Med Date: 2001 Mar-Apr Impact factor: 4.312
Authors: Teresa E Seeman; Burton H Singer; Carol D Ryff; Gayle Dienberg Love; Lené Levy-Storms Journal: Psychosom Med Date: 2002 May-Jun Impact factor: 4.312
Authors: Arun S Karlamangla; Burton H Singer; Bruce S McEwen; John W Rowe; Teresa E Seeman Journal: J Clin Epidemiol Date: 2002-07 Impact factor: 6.437
Authors: Kate Walsh; Clare A McCormack; Rachel Webster; Anita Pinto; Seonjoo Lee; Tianshu Feng; H Sloan Krakovsky; Sinclaire M O'Grady; Benjamin Tycko; Frances A Champagne; Elizabeth A Werner; Grace Liu; Catherine Monk Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2019-10-14 Impact factor: 11.205