University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.
J Aging Health. 2011 Feb;23(1):24-51. doi: 10.1177/0898264310388272. Epub 2010 Oct 22.
This study examined the relationship between volunteer activity and hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, renal failure, and cognitive impairment.
Employing data from the Health and Retirement Study, we estimated regression models of hypertension status that include volunteer activity and psychosocial and health behavior risk factors for middle-aged and older persons.
Multivariate analyses showed volunteers had lower hypertension risk and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure than nonvolunteers and that a threshold effect was present, whereby a modest amount of volunteer time commitment (but not a high amount) was associated with lower risk of hypertension. We did neither find support that psychosocial and health behaviors mediated this relationship nor find support for a moderating effect of volunteering for the relationships among health behaviors and hypertension.
The results of this study indicate that research is needed to determine what mediates the relationship between volunteering and hypertension.
本研究考察了志愿活动与高血压之间的关系，高血压是心血管疾病、肾衰竭和认知障碍的一个风险因素。
本研究利用健康与退休研究的数据，估计了包含志愿活动以及中年和老年人的心理社会和健康行为风险因素的高血压状况回归模型。
多变量分析显示，志愿者患高血压的风险较低，收缩压和舒张压也低于非志愿者，并且存在一个阈值效应，即适度的志愿时间投入（而不是大量的投入）与较低的高血压风险相关。我们既没有发现心理社会和健康行为会调节这种关系的证据，也没有发现志愿服务对健康行为与高血压之间关系的调节作用。
本研究结果表明，需要进一步研究来确定是什么在调节志愿服务与高血压之间的关系。
