Bajaj, Amoha
(2015)
Social Relationships, Daily Social Interactions, and Inflammation.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Social integration (SI) and perceived social support (SS) are associated with reduction in premature mortality, while poor marital quality (MQ), and social conflict (SC) are associated with negative health outcomes. Systemic inflammation has been proposed as a mechanism accounting for these associations. However, the literature exploring the association between aspects of social relationships and inflammation has yielded inconsistent findings. The extent to which daily social interactions may play a role in the association of SI, SS, MQ, and SC with inflammatory markers in humans is currently unknown. The literature also shows stronger evidence for links between inflammation and SC, than between inflammation and positive relationship features, although these two sets of associations have rarely been compared in the context of a single study. Using ecological momentary assessment of social measures, this project aims to examine the relationship between daily social interaction characteristics and inflammatory markers, CRP and IL-6, and to compare negative interactions with positive interactions in their association with inflammatory biomarkers, in a sample of 494 men and women, using a cross-sectional design. This results of this study show no significant associations between global measures of social integration, social support, and marital quality, and either inflammatory biomarker. There was also no association found between the frequency of social interactions and the proportion of negative social interactions with inflammatory biomarkers. However, in this sample, the proportion of positive interactions was positively associated with CRP level. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to test the robustness of this finding and it was found that this association existed in married individuals, females, and particularly, married females, suggesting that this finding may not be robust and should be interpreted with caution. And lastly, in a subsample of married individuals, there was no association found between the frequency and quality of marital interactions and either inflammatory marker.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
4 June 2015 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
6 November 2014 |
| Approval Date: |
4 June 2015 |
| Submission Date: |
5 February 2015 |
| Access Restriction: |
1 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 1 year. |
| Number of Pages: |
82 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Social support, social integration, marital quality, social interactions, ecological momentary assessment, inflammation, C-reactive protein, Interleukin-6 |
| Date Deposited: |
04 Jun 2015 17:06 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 14:26 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23969 |
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