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PITTSBURGH STUDY SUGGESTS THAT TALKING TO YOUR SPOUSE IS GOOD FOR YOU | |
| Contact: Denise Janicki Phone: 412-624-2097 Email: dlj25@pitt.edu Embargoed until: March 4', 2004 |
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Spending time with your spouse might be good for your heart. That is one of the findings from the Pittsburgh Healthy Heart Project (PHHP), a longitudinal investigation of psychosocial and physiological influences on subclinical cardiovascular disease conducted by Tom Kamarck, Ph.D., research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. These results were presented by for the first time by Denise Janicki, M.S. at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting, held March 3-6 in Orlando, FL. The participants were 250 married, healthy, older adults who underwent two 3-day sessions of ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring. In addition to having their BP taken at 45-minute intervals throughout the day, participants completed electronic diary entries that described their posture, mood, and activities during BP assessments. For the present report, the activity that was investigated as possibly being related to changes in cardiovascular (CV) health was frequency of spousal interaction. Frequency of spousal interaction was approximated by counting the number of diary reports wherein participants endorsed being involved in a social interaction with only their spouse. CV health was assessed with ultrasound scans of participants' carotid arteries that were taken during their first and third years in the study. From these scans, it could be determined whether participants' arteries were getting thicker over time. Arterial thickening is a normal part of aging, but greater thickening is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Results showed that among the men in the study, more frequent spousal interaction was associated with less arterial thickening. This finding suggests that spousal interactions may be associated with long-term CV health among older men. | |
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Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Vicki White, Managing Editor for Manuscript Production,
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