The Influence of Perceived Stress on the Onset of Arthritis in Women: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Influence of Perceived Stress on the Onset of Arthritis in Women: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health Melissa L. Harris, B.A. & Deborah Loxton, Ph.D & David W. Sibbritt, Ph.D & Julie E. Byles, Ph.D
Published online: 23 February 2013 # The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2013
Abstract Background Psychosocial factors are considered as risk factors for some chronic diseases. A paucity of research exists surrounding the role of perceived stress in arthritis onset. Purpose Perceived stress as a risk factor for arthritis development was explored in an ageing cohort of Australian women. Methods This study focused on 12,202 women from the 1946–1951 cohort who completed the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health surveys in 2001, 2004 and 2007. Longitudinal associations were modelled, with and without a time lag. Results Findings from the multivariate time lag modelling, excluding women with persistent joint pain, revealed that perceived stress predicted the onset of arthritis, with women experiencing minimal and moderate/high stress levels having a 1.7 and 2.4 times greater odds of developing arthritis 3 years later, respectively (p’s0 and ≤1) and ‘moderate/high stress’ (scores >1). This method of classification has been previously adopted [54]. This measure has shown acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha=0.70) for the 1946–1951 cohort [55] and has demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity [56, 57]. Psychosocial Covariates Cohort-specific negative life events were extracted from a modified version of the Life Event Questionnaire [58]. Women were asked to indicate whether they had experienced life events of varying severity and chronicity including a significant trauma (e.g. death of a spouse) or constant sources of stress (e.g. financial difficulties) in the previous 12 months. Women were considered to have depression and anxiety if they reported being diagnosed with or treated for these conditions in the past 3 years [59]. The abbreviated version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey [60] was used to measure perceived social support. This version includes two items from each of the emotional/informational (e.g. ‘someone to share your most private worries and fears with’), tangible (e.g. ‘someone to take you to the doctor if you need it’) and affectionate/positive social interaction subscales (e.g. ‘someone to turn to for suggestions about how to deal with a personal problem’). Respondents were asked to rate how often these types of support were made available to them when needed, on a five point Likert-type scale from ‘none of the time’ to ‘all of the time’. Mean scores for the scale were aggregated into ‘all of the time’ (scores >4 and ≤5), ‘most of the time’ (scores >3 and ≤4), ‘some of the time’ (>2 and ≤3) and ‘none/little of the time’ (scores ≤2). The abbreviated index has shown strong agreement with the original 19-item scale [53].
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Behavioural, Demographic and Health-Related Covariates Body mass index (BMI) was calculat
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