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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Aging
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1499609

Increasing stress resilience in older adults through a 6-week prevention program: effects on coping strategies, anxiety symptoms, and cortisol levels

Provisionally accepted
Marie-Josee E. Richer Marie-Josee E. Richer 1*Sebastien Grenier Sebastien Grenier 1,2Sonia Lupien Sonia Lupien 1,3Pierrich Plusquellec Pierrich Plusquellec 1,3
  • 1 Montreal University, Montreal, Canada
  • 2 Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
  • 3 Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As people age, chronic stress, resulting in prolonged or repeated activation of the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, has been associated with long-term adverse health outcomes. Coping strategies and social support have been recognized as contributing to resilience to stress in older adults. Few studies have evaluated stress management training (SMT) interventions based on psychoneuroendocrinology that were designed to be delivered to healthy older adults in community settings. In this study, a total of 170 older adults (mean age = 76.07, SD = 7.67) participated in a cluster-randomized trial designed to compare the delivery of an SMT intervention with a waitlist condition. The effect of SMT on coping strategies, stress, anxiety, and depression was measured 3 weeks and 3 months after the intervention. In addition, we tested the effect on basal cortisol secretion over 2 days from saliva samples upon awakening and the total diurnal cortisol output (area under the curve with respect to ground [AUCg]). Results from repeated measures analyses of variance showed that participants who received the intervention demonstrated a significant increase in problemsolving coping strategies and a decrease in anxiety scores 3 weeks after the intervention compared to the waitlist group. STM participants also demonstrated lower cortisol levels on the AUCg index. At the 3-month follow-up, gains were maintained only on the AUCg index. This type of brief preventive program could reduce basal cortisol levels in older adults, which may be an important protective factor against health outcomes associated with chronic HPA activation. Our results provide sufficient evidence to warrant further research to improve the effectiveness of O'stress in different settings.

    Keywords: older adults, stress, cortisol, psychological distress, Stress management intervention

    Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Richer, Grenier, Lupien and Plusquellec. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Marie-Josee E. Richer, Montreal University, Montreal, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.