title: Social support and physical activity as moderators of life stress in predicting baseline depression and change in depression over time in the Women's Health Initiative.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether social support and/or physical activity buffer the association between stressors and increasing risk of depression symptoms at baseline and at 3-year follow-up.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a secondary analysis of data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. 91,912 community-dwelling post-menopausal women participated in this prospective cohort study. Depression symptoms were measured at baseline and 3 years later; social support, physical activity, and stressors were measured at baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Stressors at baseline, including verbal abuse, physical abuse, caregiving, social strain, negative life events, financial stress, low income, acute pain, and a greater number of chronic medical conditions, were all associated with higher levels of depression symptoms at baseline and new onset elevated symptoms at 3-year follow-up. Social support and physical activity were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Contrary to expectation, more social support at baseline strengthened the association between concurrent depression and physical abuse, social strain, caregiving, and low income. Similarly, more social support at baseline increased the association between financial stress, income, and pain on new onset depression 3 years later. Physical activity similarly moderated the effect of caregiving, income, and pain on depression symptoms at baseline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stressors, social support, and physical activity showed predicted main effect associations with depression. Multiplicative interactions were small in magnitude and in the opposite direction of what was expected.
authors: Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Center for Primary Care and Prevention, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and Brown University, 111 Brewster Street, Pawtucket, RI, 02860, USA, luebelacker@butler.org.
authors: Lisa A
authors: LA
authors: Uebelacker
authors: Charles B
authors: CB
authors: Eaton
authors: Risa
authors: R
authors: Weisberg
authors: Megan
authors: M
authors: Sands
authors: Carla
authors: C
authors: Williams
authors: Darren
authors: D
authors: Calhoun
authors: Joann E
authors: JE
authors: Manson
authors: Natalie L
authors: NL
authors: Denburg
authors: Teletia
authors: T
authors: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D017698:Postmenopause; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
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