Daily Social Interactions and HPA Axis Activity Among Midlife and Older Adults

Abstract

Background and Objectives Older people experience fewer negative interactions and report less stress in response to interpersonal tensions. Less is known, however, about the implications of daily social interactions for biological stress responses. We evaluated links between daily positive and negative interactions and two key biomeasures of the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis: salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S). We also considered the moderating effects of age. Research Design and Methods Participants included a random sample of 93 individuals aged 40-95 who completed 14 days of daily diary interviews and provided saliva samples during four of those days. Results Three-level piecewise models showed that individuals had higher sustained DHEA-S levels on days after reporting more positive interactions. Young-old adults (60-79) had lower overall DHEA-S on days when they had more negative interactions than oldest-old adults (80 and older). Oldest-old adults showed a flatter decline in DHEA-S on days after they reported more negative interactions compared to midlife adults (40-59). Daily social interactions were not significantly associated with cortisol. Discussion and Implications Strategies to increase positive interactions may help to build physiological resilience to stress, particularly among midlife and young-old adults.

Physiological reactions to acute stressors and subjective stress during daily life: A systematic review on ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies

“…All other studies found no direct association between CAR, single measurements of cortisol levels at waking-up and number of acute stressors [ 25 , 102 – 106 ] in general and regarding caregiving of children with fragile X syndrome [ 102 ]. There were also no associations found regarding number [ 107 ] and occurrence [ 108 – 110 ] of acute stressors due to social interactions and severity of acute stressors [ 25 , 104 , 111 ]. However, chronic caregiving stress was suggested to moderate those relationships [ 112 – 114 ].…”

“…Studies examining other types of acute stressors found no association with diurnal cortisol slope (i.e. number of acute stressors [ 124 ] number of acute stressors regarding education [ 101 ], social interactions in general [ 101 , 107 ] and discrimination [ 99 ], occurrence of acute stressors in general [ 116 , 125 ] and regarding social interactions [ 110 , 125 ], severity of acute stressors [ 111 ], global subjective stress [ 124 , 126 , 127 ].…”

“…In this study, a positive association with severity of acute stressors at work was found among men but not women. No direct associations were identified between global subjective stress and temporalis muscle [ 168 ], EMG activity [ 169 ] or salivary levels of DHEA-S [ 107 ]. However, a significant moderation effect of age on the association of number of acute stressors regarding social interactions and DHEA-S levels occurred [ 107 ].…”

“…No direct associations were identified between global subjective stress and temporalis muscle [ 168 ], EMG activity [ 169 ] or salivary levels of DHEA-S [ 107 ]. However, a significant moderation effect of age on the association of number of acute stressors regarding social interactions and DHEA-S levels occurred [ 107 ]. Two EMA studies examined whether acute stress is associated with EDA.…”