Social Support and Health

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that several reviews have reported social support to be inversely related to total and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity and changes in cardiovascular reactivity based on the difference between task levels and baseline levels of cardiovascular indicators. The author reports that cardiovascular reactivity has been suggested as a potential mediator of the benefits of social support on health such that social support affects reactivity that in turn affects health. The paper describes the methodology by which (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity were manipulated given conditions of support, no-support or alone by using a computer challenge task. The author indicates that, for stress levels, it is clear that the difference between the means for all support variables was statistically significant. The paper includes tables and graphs.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Hypotheses
Method
Participants
Hemodynamic Recoding
Experimental Manipulation
Tasks/Challenges
Subjective Measures
Results
Hypothesis 1
Hypothesis 2
Hypothesis 3
Discussion

From the Paper:

"Since there are a equal number of males and females in the experiment, and we are interested in gender interaction (as a second variable), the randomized block design allows for the use of the two-way ANOVA; since we are interested in comparing the effects of the three support conditions on SBP reactivity with gender interaction. The two factor design will contain all the information necessary to conduct two separate one-way ANOVAs on the factors related to gender and the support factors, it will also contain additional information that will show how the two factors interact with each other in terms of the SBP reactivity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Eriksen, W. (1994). The role of social support in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease. A literature review. Family Practice, 11, 201-209.
• Hilmert, C. J., Christenfeld, N., & Kulik, J. A. (2002). Audience status moderates the effects of social support and self efficacy on cardiovascular reactivity during public speaking. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24, 122-131.
• Kamarck, T. W. (1992). Recent developments in the study of cardiovascular reactivity: Contributions from psychometric theory and social psychology. Psychophysiology, 29, 491-503.
• Kamarck, T. W., Manuck, S. B., & Jennings, J. R. (1990). Social support reduces cardiovascular reactivity to psychological challenge: A laboratory model. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 42-58.
• Krantz, D. S., Helmers, K. F., Bairey, C. N., Nebel, L. E., Hedges, S. M., & Rozanski, A. (1991). Cardiovascular reactivity and mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 53, 1-12.

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