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 years).
  
  
  METHODS
  Predictors encompassed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and perceived stress (of a nontraumatic nature and beyond health status) in relation to four dimensions of physical health. 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 physical 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, 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: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D010465:Perception; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires