Giving to others and the association between stress and mortality

M.J. Poulin, S.L. Brown, A.J. Dillard and D.M. Smith

American Journal of Public Health, 2013, vol. 103, issue 9, 1649-1655

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to test the hypothesis that providing help to others predicts a reduced association between stress and mortality. Methods. We examined data from participants (n = 846) in a study in the Detroit, Michigan, area. Participants completed baseline interviews that assessed past-year stressful events and whether the participant had provided tangible assistance to friends or family members. Participant mortality and time to death was monitored for 5 years by way of newspaper obituaries and monthly state death-record tapes. Results. When we adjusted for age, baseline health and functioning, and key psychosocial variables, Cox proportional hazard models for mortality revealed a significant interaction between helping behavior and stressful events (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.58; P

Keywords: adult; age; aged; article; cooperation; female; health status; human; life event; male; middle aged; mortality; proportional hazards model; prospective study; psychology; risk factor; United States; very elderly, Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Health Status; Helping Behavior; Humans; Life Change Events; Male; Michigan; Middle Aged; Mortality; Proportional Hazards Models; Prospective Studies; Psychology; Risk Factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300876

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2012.300876_0

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300876

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().