Perceived stress and mortality in a Taiwanese older adult population

Abstract

Perceived stress is associated with poor health outcomes including negative affect, increased susceptibility to the common cold, and cardiovascular disease; the consequences of perceived stress for mortality, however, have received less attention. This study characterizes the relationship between perceived stress and 11-year mortality in a population of Taiwanese adults aged 53+. Using the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Near Elderly and Elderly of Taiwan, we calculated a composite measure of perceived stress based on six items pertaining to the health, financial situation, and occupation of the respondents and their families. Proportional hazard models were used to determine whether perceived stress predicted mortality. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors only, we found that a one standard deviation increase in perceived stress was associated with a 19% increase in all-cause mortality risk during the 11-year follow-up period (HR=1.19, 95% CI 1.13–1.26). The relationship was greatly attenuated when perceptions of stress regarding health were excluded, and was not significant after adjusting for medical conditions, mobility limitations, and depressive symptoms. We conclude that the association between perceived stress and mortality is explained by an individual's current health; however, our data do not allow us to distinguish between two possible interpretations of this conclusion: a) the relationship between perceived stress and mortality is spurious, or b) poor health acts as the mediator.

Association of perceived stress with depressive symptoms in older Taiwanese: Results of a population‐based study

“…6,8,15,29,30 These perceived stress situations were tested in the multivariate logistic regression models; each using the no stress group as the reference. The level of perceived stress was based on the respondent's report of whether each of the five situations "makes you feel stressed or anxious".…”

“…This assessment of stress had also been used in other studies. 6,8,15,29,30 These perceived stress situations were tested in the multivariate logistic regression models; each using the no stress group as the reference.…”

Relationship Between Mental Health and the Education Level in Elderly People: Mediation of Leisure Attitude

“…Indeed, it is commonly accepted that spending leisure time is important to improve the quality of mental health (Silverstein and Parker, 2002). Aging is, very often, a life period associated with stressful events (Vasunilashorn et al, 2013;de Frias and Whyne, 2015;Kao and Chang, 2017). As main stressors in later life, we must consider the death of a significant person (Kao and Chang, 2017), health related concerns (Tak, 2006) or disability and chronic disease (Norris and Murrell, 1990;Kao and Chang, 2017).…”

History of Non-Fatal Physical Assault Is Associated with Premature Mortality for Whites but Not Blacks

“…The result that history of non-fatal physical assault was a risk factor for premature mortality overall and for Whites is supported by the literature on the effects of stress and trauma on mortality [11,[33][34][35]. Stress increases risk of health problems, such as excess body fat and obesity [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44].…”