title: A pilot study on perceived stress and PTSD symptomatology in relation to four dimensions of older women's physical health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors examined whether selected demographic and psychological factors would predict physical health dimensions in a sample of 53 cognitively high-functioning and ethnically diverse women (age 65-105).
  
  
  METHODS
  Predictors encompassed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and perceived stress (of a nontraumatic nature and beyond health status) in relation to all dimensions of physical health of the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36); (Ware, J.E., & Sherbourne, C.D., 1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30(6), 473-483). Age and income, well-known correlates of health in the target population, were included as potential predictors. The authors first tested the relationship between potential predictors and health dimensions via a canonical correlation analysis, and then employed full multiple regression analyses to simultaneously test the predictors in each health dimension model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Perceived stress was a significant predictor of lower levels of general health (GH), but not of role limitations or physical functioning (PF). Conversely, PTSD symptomatology predicted more limitations in role fulfillment (and, to a lesser extent, impaired PF), but not lower levels of GH. As expected, age and income were predictive of some physical health dimensions. The hypothesized predictors failed to account for a significant portion of variance in pain scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PTSD symptomatology and perceived stress might influence older women's physical health dimensions differentially; additional research on larger samples is needed to corroborate these findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA 91330-8255, USA. luciana.lagana@csun.edu
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laganà
authors.forename: Stacy L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Reger
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D010465:Perception; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*