Exploring the role of gratitude and support-giving on inflammatory outcomes.

Abstract

Although there has been much interest in understanding the effect of gratitude on health-related outcomes, this remains an understudied area of research, particularly regarding mechanisms and measurement of biological outcomes. The present study explored whether a gratitude intervention could reduce inflammatory outcomes and whether this occurred through increased support-giving. Healthy women (n ϭ 76) were randomly assigned to a 6-week gratitude intervention (i.e., writing on topics intended to induce gratitude) or a control condition (i.e., neutral writing). Support-giving and markers of inflammation were measured pre-and postintervention. Those in the gratitude intervention (vs. control) reported higher postintervention levels of support-giving. Moreover, those with lower levels of psychological distress gave more support as a function of the gratitude intervention. Regarding inflammatory outcomes, although there was no effect of the gratitude intervention on postintervention inflammatory markers, increases in support-giving across the entire sample were related to decreases in inflammatory markers. These results, along with a scarcity of work in this area, suggest that further work is needed to more fully understand the relationships between gratitude and biological markers relevant to health. Finally, these novel findings linking support-giving and decreases in inflammation also indicate that the mammalian caregiving system, associated with enhanced support-giving and reduced physiological stress responding, is a mechanism worth further examination to elucidate the links between social support and health.

Volunteering, Subjective Sleep Quality, and Chronic Inflammation: A 5-Year Follow-Up of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

“…Further, the findings signify the importance to consider multiple related health outcomes (i.e., sleep quality and chronic inflammation) simultaneously rather than separately. Although not the core focus of the current study, additional psychological correlates of volunteering such as perceptions of feeling needed (Gruenewald et al, 2012), generativity (Moieni et al, 2018), and self-esteem (O'Donnell et al, 2008) would explain which psychological benefits of voluntary activity may exert the most anti-inflammatory effects. Motivations for volunteering are also important predictors of health outcomes, such as altruism, social connection (Konrath et al, 2012), and valuing others (Poulin, 2014).…”

Giving Social Support at Work May Reduce Inflammation on Employees Themselves: A Participatory Workplace Intervention Study Among Japanese Hospital Nurses

“…Our nding is comparable with a past study regarding giving social support and in ammatory markers. A study by Moieni et al reported that increases in giving social support levels are related to decreases in in ammatory markers [12]; a 6-week gratitude intervention resulted in decreases in the percentage of monocytes producing IL-6, TNF-α, and coproducing IL-6 and TNF-α via increases in support-giving among healthy middle-aged women. On the other hand, the control group did not lead to such changes.…”

“…Although limited studies on giving social support, two intervention studies examined the effects of giving social support on physiological responses (in ammatory markers, heart rate, blood pressure, salivary alpha-amylase, and salivary cortisol) among healthy individuals [11,12]. These studies revealed that giving social support contributed to decreasing in ammatory markers, systolic blood pressure, and salivary alpha-amylase [11,12]. However, the study settings were experimental, i.e., the intervention was to imagine someone whom participants wanted to support and write a supporting letter to him/her, etc.…”

The Resting Brain Sets Support-Giving in Motion: Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Momentary Rest Primes Supportive Responding

“…Beyond implications for prosocial behavior, there is a growing appreciation for the contribution of support-giving to the link between social support and physical health ( Inagaki 2018 ). Giving more support to others is associated with better health outcomes (e.g., Piferi and Lawler 2006 ; Moieni et al. 2019 ) even when adjusting for receiving support ( Brown et al.…”