Perceived Social Support and Cardiovascular Risk in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study Cohort

Abstract of Perceived Social Support and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study CohortThe psychosocial variable, social support, has been linked to cardiovascular (CVD) outcomes in that many studies demonstrate that high social support is inversely associated with fewer cardiovascular outcomes. The purpose of this research was to examine the association between social support and 1) cardiovascular outcomes and 2) all-cause mortality within a cohort of 93,676 postmenopausal women. Women were followed for an average of 7.6 years. Social support was measured with an abbreviated version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey. The associations of CVD events and mortality with social support, as measured early in study enrollment, were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models, adjusting for demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, and lifestyle covariates. The abbreviated MOS Social Support Scale demonstrated high internal consistency (r=0.80). When predicting total CVD, the unadjusted hazard ratios and 95 % CI for total CVD in the highest support versus low support group was 0.63 (0.52, 0.76) for women without prior CVD, and 0.72 (0.59, 0.87) for women with prior CVD. The unadjusted hazard ratios and 95% CI for predicting newly diagnosed coronary artery disease in the highest support versus low support group was 0.63 (0.44, 0.89) for women with prior CVD. Associations were not significant when demographic (age, race, education, income), lifestyle (smoking, BMI, physical activity), and cardiovascular risk factor (high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension) covariates were added to the model. These findings suggest that social support may have an important role in affecting cardiovascular outcomes in this population, but that this effect may be mediated and/or confounded by the studied covariates. Further analyses of these data may clarify the role of these variables.

Author

• Freeborne, Nancy

Language

• en

Keyword

• Postmenopause
• Women's Health Initiative
• Proportional Hazard Ratios
• Social Support
• Cardiovascular Diseases

Date created

• 2009

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Health Behavior

Degree

• Dr.P.H.

Advisor

• Windsor, Richard

Committee Member(s)

• Simmens, Samuel
• Howard, Barbara
• Martin, Lisa
• Burke, Robert

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/3484zh052