Abstract TU241: Psychosocial Assets Promote Cardiovascular Health Across Adulthood: A Mixed Methods Investigation

Abstract

Introduction: There is growing recognition that psychosocial factors contribute to cardiovascular outcomes. A large body of research consistently finds that risk factors like depression increase risk for cardiovascular disease. In contrast, psychosocial assets like purpose in life promote healthy functioning but are less well-understood. This study used a mixed methods approach to assess a variety of psychosocial assets and compare the strength of associations between each asset and a composite measure of cardiovascular health (CVH) assessed 12 years later. We hypothesized adults with higher levels of psychosocial assets at midlife would have better CVH in older adulthood. Methods: Data came from 1,980 participants in the United Kingdom’s National Child Development Study. At age 50, participants wrote an open-ended response to the prompt “Imagine that you are now 60 years old… please write a few lines about the life you are leading.” Two judges rated each response (1=not at all; 7=very) for eight psychosocial assets: optimism, purpose, social connections, life satisfaction, personal growth, agency, enjoyment, and overall positivity. Interrater agreement for each asset was excellent (Finn’s r = .84-.90). CVH at age 62 was defined using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 metric (although diet data were not available). CVH components were self-reported (physical activity, sleep, nicotine exposure) or clinically assessed (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, lipids, glucose, body mass index) and combined into an overall CVH score with higher scores indicating better CVH (range=27-100). Separate linear regression analyses examined the association between each psychosocial asset at age 50 and CVH at age 62, adjusting for confounders at age 50 (sociodemographic characteristics, response word counts, depressive symptoms, and health status). Results: All psychosocial assets were positively associated with better CVH scores in fully adjusted models ( p s≦.05), except for social connections. Purpose (b=1.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]=.56-2.64), personal growth (b=1.36, 95% CI=.50-2.22), and agency (b=1.21, 95% CI=.34-2.09) showed the strongest associations with CVH. Conclusions: Higher levels of most midlife psychosocial assets were linked with better CVH over time, suggesting there are multiple paths to protection. These findings highlight specific psychosocial assets that could be intervention targets in future cardiovascular prevention efforts.