Stress-related health depreciation: Using allostatic load to predict self-rated health

L.E. Barry, S. O'Neill, L.G. Heaney and C. O'Neill
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stephen O'Neill

Social Science & Medicine, 2021, vol. 283, issue C

Abstract: Approximately one quarter of UK adults are currently diagnosed with two or more chronic conditions, often referred to as multimorbidity. Chronic stress has been implicated in the development of many diseases common to multimorbidity. Policymakers and clinicians have acknowledged the need for more preventative approaches to deal with the rise of multimorbidity and “early ageing”. However divergence may occur between an individual's self-rated health and objectively measured health that may preclude preventative action. The use of biomarkers which look ‘under the skin’ provide crucial information on an individual's underlying health to facilitate lifestyle change or healthcare utilisation. The UK's Understanding Society dataset, was used to examine whether baseline variation in biomarkers measuring stress-related “wear and tear” – Allostatic Load (AL) – predict changes in future self-rated health (SRH) while adjusting for baseline SRH, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, and healthcare inputs. An interaction between baseline AL and baseline SRH was included to test for differential rates of SRH change. We examined SRH using the SF6D instrument, measuring health-related-quality of life (HRQoL), as well as its physical and mental health components separately. We found that HRQoL and physical health decline faster for those with higher baseline AL (indicating greater “wear and tear”) however the same pattern was not observed for mental health. These findings provide novel insights for clinicians and policymakers on the usefulness of AL in capturing health trajectories of which individual's may not be aware and its importance in targeting resilience enhancing measures earlier in the lifecourse to delay physical health decline.

Keywords: Stress; Ageing; Allostatic load; Health depreciation; Biomarkers; SF6D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621005025
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:socmed:v:283:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621005025

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114170

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().