Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Ann Behav Med. 2023 Nov 16;57(12):1058-1068. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaad042.
While informal helping has been linked to a reduced risk of mortality, it remains unclear if this association persists across different levels of key social structural moderators.
To examine whether the longitudinal association between informal helping and all-cause mortality differs by specific social structural moderators (including age, gender, race/ethnicity, wealth, income, and education) in a large, prospective, national, and diverse sample of older U.S. adults.
We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a national sample of U.S. adults aged >50 (N = 9,662). Using multivariable Poisson regression, we assessed effect modification by six social structural moderators (age, gender, race/ethnicity, wealth, income, and education) for the informal helping (2006/2008) to mortality (2010-2016/2012-2018) association on the additive and multiplicative scales.
Participants who reported ≥100 hr/year of informal helping (vs. 0 hr/year), had a lower mortality risk. Those who engaged in 1-49 hr/year most consistently displayed lower mortality risk across moderators, while those who engaged in 50-99 and ≥100 hr/year only showed decreased mortality risk across some moderators. When formally testing effect modification, there was evidence that the informal helping-mortality associations were stronger among women and the wealthiest.
Informal helping is associated with decreased mortality. Yet, there appear to be key differences in who benefits from higher amounts of informal helping across social structural moderators. Further research is needed to evaluate how the associations between informal helping and health and well-being are patterned across key social structural moderators.
虽然非正式帮助与降低死亡率有关，但尚不清楚这种关联是否在不同的关键社会结构调节因素水平上持续存在。
在一个大型的、前瞻性的、全国性的和多样化的美国老年人样本中，检验非正式帮助与全因死亡率之间的纵向关联是否因特定的社会结构调节因素（包括年龄、性别、种族/民族、财富、收入和教育）而有所不同。
我们分析了来自健康与退休研究的数据，这是一项针对美国 50 岁以上成年人（N=9662）的全国性样本。我们使用多变量泊松回归，评估了六个社会结构调节因素（年龄、性别、种族/民族、财富、收入和教育）对非正式帮助（2006/2008 年）到死亡率（2010-2016/2012-2018 年）关联的加性和乘法尺度上的效应修饰作用。
与每年 0 小时的非正式帮助相比，报告每年 100 小时或以上非正式帮助的参与者的死亡率风险较低。那些每年进行 1-49 小时非正式帮助的人在所有调节因素中死亡率风险最低，而那些每年进行 50-99 小时和 100 小时或以上非正式帮助的人仅在一些调节因素中显示出死亡率风险降低。当正式检验效应修饰时，有证据表明，非正式帮助与死亡率之间的关联在女性和最富有的人中更强。
非正式帮助与死亡率降低有关。然而，在不同的社会结构调节因素中，谁能从更高水平的非正式帮助中受益，似乎存在关键差异。需要进一步研究来评估非正式帮助与健康和幸福之间的关联在关键社会结构调节因素中的模式。
