A novel approach to model cumulative stress: Area under the s-factor curve.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Using a large longitudinal sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, the present study extended a recently developed hierarchical model to determine how best to model the accumulation of stressors, and to determine whether the rate of change in stressors or traditional composite scores of stressors are stronger predictors of health outcomes.

Method

We used factor analysis to estimate a stress-factor score and then, to operationalize the accumulation of stressors we examined five approaches to aggregating information about repeated exposures to multiple stressors. The predictive validity of these approaches was then assessed in relation to different health outcomes.

Results

The prediction of chronic conditions, body mass index, dif

SUBMITTER: Mann FD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11186517 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature