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The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality

OBJECTIVE: Positive affect is associated with longevity; according to the stress-buffering hypothesis, this is because positive affect reduces the health harming effects of psychological stress. If this mechanism plays a role, then the association between positive affect and mortality risk should be...

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Autores principales: Okely, Judith A., Weiss, Alexander, Gale, Catharine R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pergamon Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5555349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28789793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.07.005
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author Okely, Judith A.
Weiss, Alexander
Gale, Catharine R.
author_facet Okely, Judith A.
Weiss, Alexander
Gale, Catharine R.
author_sort Okely, Judith A.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Positive affect is associated with longevity; according to the stress-buffering hypothesis, this is because positive affect reduces the health harming effects of psychological stress. If this mechanism plays a role, then the association between positive affect and mortality risk should be most apparent among individuals who report higher stress. Here, we test this hypothesis. METHODS: The sample consisted of 8542 participants aged 32–86 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) Epidemiological Follow-up Study (NHEFS). We used Cox's proportional hazards regression to test for the main effects of and the interaction between positive affect and perceived stress in predicting mortality risk over a 10 year follow up period. RESULTS: Greater positive affect was associated with lower mortality risk. We found a significant interaction between positive affect and perceived stress such that the association between positive affect and mortality risk was stronger in people reporting higher stress. In the fully adjusted model, a standard deviation increase in positive affect was associated with a 16% (HR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.75, 0.95) reduction in mortality risk among participants who reported high levels of stress. The association between positive affect and mortality risk was weaker and not significant among participants who reported low levels of stress (HR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.89, 1.08). CONCLUSION: Our results support the stress-buffering model and illustrate that the association between positive affect and reduced risk may be strongest under challenging circumstances.
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spelling pubmed-55553492017-09-01 The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality Okely, Judith A. Weiss, Alexander Gale, Catharine R. J Psychosom Res Article OBJECTIVE: Positive affect is associated with longevity; according to the stress-buffering hypothesis, this is because positive affect reduces the health harming effects of psychological stress. If this mechanism plays a role, then the association between positive affect and mortality risk should be most apparent among individuals who report higher stress. Here, we test this hypothesis. METHODS: The sample consisted of 8542 participants aged 32–86 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) Epidemiological Follow-up Study (NHEFS). We used Cox's proportional hazards regression to test for the main effects of and the interaction between positive affect and perceived stress in predicting mortality risk over a 10 year follow up period. RESULTS: Greater positive affect was associated with lower mortality risk. We found a significant interaction between positive affect and perceived stress such that the association between positive affect and mortality risk was stronger in people reporting higher stress. In the fully adjusted model, a standard deviation increase in positive affect was associated with a 16% (HR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.75, 0.95) reduction in mortality risk among participants who reported high levels of stress. The association between positive affect and mortality risk was weaker and not significant among participants who reported low levels of stress (HR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.89, 1.08). CONCLUSION: Our results support the stress-buffering model and illustrate that the association between positive affect and reduced risk may be strongest under challenging circumstances. Pergamon Press 2017-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5555349/ /pubmed/28789793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.07.005 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Okely, Judith A.
Weiss, Alexander
Gale, Catharine R.
The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title_full The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title_fullStr The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title_full_unstemmed The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title_short The interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
title_sort interaction between stress and positive affect in predicting mortality
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5555349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28789793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.07.005
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