Content area
Full text
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 byway 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; Pc.05; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.35, 0.98). Specifically, stress did not predict mortality risk among individuals who provided help to others in the past year (HR = 0.96; 95% Cl = 0.79, 1.18), but stress did predict mortality among those who did not provide help to others (HR = 1.30; Pc .05; 95% Cl = 1.05, 1.62).
Conclusions. Helping others predicted reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality. [Am J Public Health. 2013;103:1649-1655. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.300876)
In a seminal review published more than 20 years ago. House et al. described the strong association between social connections and physical health.1 The researchers concluded that socially isolated people, compared with those with strong social ties, were at substan- tially increased risk of mortality and morbidity. In fact, the magnitude of the association be- tween social isolation and mortality was com- parable to that for high blood pressure, smoking, and sedentary lifestyle, even after statistical controls for other known risk factors such as baseline health. Despite the robustness of this effect, it remains unclear what aspects of the social environment influence physical health outcomes.
One hypothesized link between social con- nections and health is that the social support people receive from their network of Mends and loved ones may "buffer" against the detri- mental physical consequences of psychosocial stress.2'3 Indeed, stressful life events have long been established to be a predictor of increased mortality risk.4'5 However, the social support hypothesis has not been consistently supported in empirical studies. Although some empirical studies suggest health benefits of received social support-and at...