Poster #11 - Social Support and Loneliness as Predictors of Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Poor social support and loneliness are associated with negative health outcomes in adulthood, including cardiovascular disease (Christenfeld & Gerin, 2000; Xia et al, 2018). However, there is limited research on whether social support and loneliness are associated with cardiovascular risk as early as adolescence. The current study examines whether social support from parents and peers as well as loneliness are associated with cardiovascular risk in early adolescence. Adolescence is an important developmental period for establishing health behaviors that may persist throughout adulthood, underscoring the importance of examining predictors of cardiovascular risk during this period. It was predicted that greater social support from parents and peers would be associated with lower cardiovascular risk, while loneliness would be associated with greater cardiovascular risk. In an ongoing study, adolescents aged 13-15 years were recruited for an in-person visit, along with one parent (n=62). The adolescent completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment Scale, which measures the relationship quality between the adolescents and their parents (mother, father, or guardian) as well as their peers (Gullone & Robinson, 2005). For this analysis, the scores for the two parents were averaged if the child had two parents, given the high correlation of relationship quality between parents (r=0.80). The adolescent also reported feelings of loneliness and isolation with the UCLA Loneliness Scale, (Russell, 1996). In the lab session, trained research assistants measured waist circumference, body fat percentage (Tanita DC-430U), and resting blood pressure (averaged z-score of systolic and diastolic blood pressure; DinaMap Carescape V100). These variables were z-scored, adjusted for sex, and averaged to create a composite variable for cardiovascular risk (r=0.35-0.61 between indicators). Additionally, the Sphygmocor XCEL was used to measure pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness associated with later cardiovascular disease, which was not associated with the other indicators. Linear regressions were conducted to examine the associations between the independent variables of loneliness, parent social support, and peer social support with the dependent variables of 1) the cardiovascular risk composite, and 2) PWV. Analyses controlled for age and parent education. As these analyses are preliminary, in this abstract we focus on effect sizes greater than or equal to β=0.20 rather than focusing on statistical significance, though we will conduct significance testing before the conference in March with a total of at least 100 participants. For the cardiovascular risk component, greater loneliness predicted greater cardiovascular risk in adolescents, β=0.20. For PWV, greater loneliness was unexpectedly associated with lower PWV, β= -0.23 (i.e., lower cardiovascular risk), though higher quality social support from parents was associated with lower PWV as predicted, β= -0.20. Follow-up analyses with the components of the cardiovascular risk composite suggested that loneliness was most associated with higher resting blood pressure, β=0.26, and it may also be associated with higher body fat percentage, β=0.19. These analyses suggest that associations between loneliness and cardiovascular risk that are observed in adulthood may be seen in early adolescence and that parent social support may act as a protective factor for arterial stiffness.

Authors

• Andrea Infante, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Kenia Rivera, University of Denver

• Jenalee Doom, University of Denver