Positive affect and psychosocial processes related to health

Steptoe, Andrew; O’Donnell, Katie; Marmot, Michael; Wardle, Jane

doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2008.tb00474.x

Cited by 87 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…As shown in Table 1, there was no association between PA and education and employment, or with the presence of cancer, CHD, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, or chronic lung disease at baseline. This compares with retrospective questionnaire measures of positive moods, which are more consistently associated with lower SES and the presence of serious illness (24,25).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive affect measured using ecological momentary assessment and survival in older men and women

Steptoe

Wardle

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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148

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Links between positive affect (PA) and health have predominantly been investigated by using measures of recollected emotional states. Ecological momentary assessment is regarded as a more precise measure of experienced well-being. We analyzed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, a representative cohort of older men and women living in England. PA was assessed by aggregating momentary assessments over a single day in 3,853 individuals aged 52 to 79 y who were followed up for an average of 5 y. Respondents in the lowest third of PA had a death rate of 7.3%, compared with 4.6% in the medium-PA group and 3.6% in the high-PA group. Cox proportional-hazards regression showed a hazard ratio of 0.498 (95% confidence interval, 0.345-0.721) in the high-PA compared with the low-PA group, adjusted for age and sex. This was attenuated to 0.646 (95% confidence interval, 0.436-0.958) after controlling for demographic factors, negative affect, depressed mood, health indicators, and health behaviors. Negative affect and depressed mood were not related to survival after adjustment for covariates. These findings indicate that experienced PA, even over a single day, has a graded relationship with survival that is not caused by baseline health status or other covariates. Momentary PA may be causally related to survival, or may be a marker of underlying biological, behavioral, or temperamental factors, although reverse causality cannot be conclusively ruled out. The results endorse the value of assessing experienced affect, and the importance of evaluating interventions that promote happiness in older populations.positive well-being | mortality | aging S ubjective well-being is being increasingly seen as an indicator of societal progress (1), and some countries are beginning to establish national well-being surveys (2). There is evidence that positive affective states and other measures of well-being are associated prospectively with longer survival and reduced risk of diseases of older age (3-9). Effects are maintained after initial health status and established risk factors are taken into account, and may also be independent of negative states such as depression (3, 10).To date, studies relating positive well-being with mortality have mainly relied on assessments of recollected emotional states, in which people are asked to rate their feelings of happiness or well-being in general, either without any time frame (5,6,9,11,12) or over a specific time period such as the previous 4 wk (4,8,10,13,14). Psychological research has established that recollected affect may diverge from actual experience because it is influenced by errors in recollection, recall biases, focusing illusions, and salient memory heuristics (15,16). This "memoryexperience gap" between life as it is remembered and life as it is experienced may be important to the processes through which the past impacts on future behavior (17).Methods of overcoming the limitations of retrospective measures include the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (18), ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive affect measured using ecological momentary assessment and survival in older men and women

Steptoe

Wardle

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

148

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“…These and other results suggest that patients with higher levels of positive affect might possess more adequate coping strategies, and higher levels of selfregulation, by which health-behavior change, including being physically active, can occur and be maintained. 20,21 Drawing conclusions about the direction of the relationship is yet premature, but the most likely conclusion regarding this interrelationship would be that it is bidirectional. 40 Examining the mechanisms that may explain the relationship between positive affect and mortality is important because these mechanisms could provide us with information on targets for future intervention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[15][16][17] However, the mechanisms underlying the association between positive affect and medical outcomes remain largely unknown. Exercise might be one of these candidate mechanisms, because positive affect has been related to increased exercise because of more adequate coping strategies and higher levels of self-regulation, [18][19][20][21] and exercise has been shown to be an important predictor of prognosis. 22,23 Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate whether (1) positive affect was predictive of time to first Background-Positive affect has been associated with better prognosis in patients with ischemic heart disease, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.…”

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confidence: 99%

Exercise Mediates the Association Between Positive Affect and 5-Year Mortality in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease

Hoogwegt

Versteeg

Hansen

et al. 2013

Circ: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes

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Background— Positive affect has been associated with better prognosis in patients with ischemic heart disease, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We examined whether positive affect predicted time to first cardiac-related hospitalization and all-cause mortality, and whether exercise mediated this relationship in patients with established ischemic heart disease. Methods and Results— The sample comprised 607 patients with ischemic heart disease from Holbæk Hospital, Denmark. In 2005, patients completed the Global Mood Scale (GMS) to assess positive affect and a purpose-designed question on exercise. Data on mortality and hospitalization were collected from Danish national registers for the period 2006–2010. Adjusted Cox and logistic regression were used to analyze the mediation model. Because no significant association between positive affect and cardiac-related hospitalization was found, we constructed no mediation model for hospitalization. Importantly, patients with high positive affect had a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.37–0.92; unadjusted analysis) and were more likely to exercise (odds ratio, 1.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.44–2.76; unadjusted analysis; odds ratio, 1.48; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–2.13; adjusted analysis). When controlling for positive affect and other relevant variables, patients engaged in exercise were less likely to die during follow-up (hazard ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.31–0.80; P =0.004). Importantly, exercise acted as a mediator in the relationship between positive affect and mortality. Conclusions— Patients with higher levels of positive affect were more likely to exercise and had a lower risk of dying during 5-year follow-up, with exercise mediating the relationship between positive affect and mortality. Interventions aimed at increasing both positive affect and exercise may have better results with respect to patients’ prognosis and psychological well-being than interventions focusing on 1 of these factors alone.

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“…Also, there is evidence that promoting positive mental health benefits physical health by improving overall health (Benyamini et al, 2000), stroke incidence and survival (Ostir et al, 2001), protection from heart disease (Keyes, 2004). Positive affect may also provide a stress buffering effect that helps people to cope (Steptoe, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense of social support in chonic pain patients

Šmite

Rudzite²,

Ancane

2012

SHS Web of Conferences

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Abstract. Statistical data show that one in five adults of the European citizen suffer from some type of chronic pain. One of the most common types of chronic pain is chronic low back and neck pain. Emotional factors are currently viewed as important determinants in pain perception and behaviour. The perceived social and emotional support have impact to the individual's adaptation to chronic disease (Cohen, Wills, 1985). The material: 110 chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients (48 male and 62 female; in age from 24 to 60 years, mean: 44.2±8, 0) and pilot study of 23 chronic neck pain (CNP) patients (19 female and 4 male; in age from 35 to 60 years, mean: 48, 1 ±6. The assessment methods: structured interview; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). SF-36® Health Survey: assessment of emotional and social support. Results and conclusions: CLBP patients in presence of symptoms of depression and elevated level of anxiety matched for socio-demographic features had less sense of social support and marked pain impact to daily activities, lower self rating health relating quality of life. In CLBP patients the sense of social and emotional support had relevant interaction with level of participation in daily activities both in patients with and without mental health problems. This fact has to be considered in process of rehabilitation and in managing of health care of CLBP patients. The results of CNP patients pilot study revealed interesting trend that chronic back and neck pain patients seems to be quite different according to sense of social and emotional support, therefore sense of social and emotional support in different chronic pain patients need further research to improve the process and results of rehabilitation in these patients.

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Positive affect and psychosocial processes related to health

Cited by 87 publications

References 64 publications

Positive affect measured using ecological momentary assessment and survival in older men and women

Positive affect measured using ecological momentary assessment and survival in older men and women

Exercise Mediates the Association Between Positive Affect and 5-Year Mortality in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease

Sense of social support in chonic pain patients

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