title: Associations of Psychological Well-Being With Carotid Intima Media Thickness in African American and White Middle-Aged Women.
abstract: The present cross-sectional study aimed to a) examine associations between measures of psychological well-being, specifically life satisfaction and life engagement, and intima media thickness, a subclinical marker of atherosclerosis; b) investigate if the interaction of psychological well-being and life events correlated with intima media thickness; and c) explore these relationships across race.
  
  
  
  A sample of 485 women (38% African American and 62% white; mean [standard deviation] age = 50.2 [2.9] years) underwent ultrasonography to assess carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT). The women completed self-report measures of life satisfaction, life engagement, and life events.
  
  
  
  Average (standard deviation) IMT was 0.666 (0.10) mm. Life satisfaction showed a significant, independent, inverse relationship with IMT, after controlling for demographic, behavioral, psychological, and cardiovascular covariates (β = -0.105, p = .039), such that each 1-point higher life satisfaction score was correlated with a significant 0.008-mm lower level of mean IMT. No significant association was seen between life events and IMT (r = 0.05, p = .32), and life satisfaction did not interact with life events on IMT (β = -0.036, p = .46). No significant interaction between life satisfaction and race on IMT was observed (β = 0.068, p = .37). In contrast to life satisfaction, life engagement was not a significant correlate of IMT (r = -0.07, p = .12).
  
  
  
  Life satisfaction, a measure of psychological well-being, is an important independent correlate of subclinical atherosclerosis in middle-aged women.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Medicine (Shahabi), University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Department of Preventive Medicine (Karavolos, Powell), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois; Department of Medicine (Everson-Rose), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Department of Epidemiology (Lewis), Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Departments of Psychiatry (Matthews) and Epidemiology (Sutton-Tyrrell), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Sutton-Tyrrell is deceased.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shahabi
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karavolos
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Everson-Rose
authors.forename: Tené T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sutton-Tyrrell
authors.forename: Lynda H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Powell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000208:ethnology*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology*