Advancing Psychosocial & Biobehavioral Stress Measurement to Understanding Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：现在有大规模的流行病学证据表明，慢性心理压力的各个方面，例如早期的逆境或工作压力以及早期的生活 压力，预测早期疾病发作和死亡率。尽管有文献记载压力对健康的重要性，但仍有一些关键障碍阻碍了压力作为疾病危险因素的流行病学研究的进展。压力的测量本质上是复杂且多层次的（例如社会、心理、生理）。很少有商定的“黄金标准” 压力的测量，因此当异质结构混合在一起时，测量常常不一致且肤浅。人们对于压力暴露在什么条件下会增加对疾病的脆弱性和恢复力的了解也知之甚少。与此同时，压力过程的基础科学取得了快速进展，这有助于解开认知和情感成分、与大脑和外周生理反应的联系，以及更丰富的日常压力测量——例如，通过使用技术进行生态瞬时评估来获得暴露和环境的详细概况。因此，流行病学压力科学可以受益于更连贯的多层次模型，该模型包含更好地测量生命周期暴露和反应，包括对健康影响最大的压力的社会、心理和生理指标。拟议的 R24 将招募拥有相关方法的优秀科学家，将他们的兴趣应用于人类发展过程中压力测量的进展，重点关注寿命压力如何影响中晚年的健康。目标包括： 1) 制定压力测量分类法，包括最佳测量指南； 2) 开发短期压力测量“工具箱”，可用于国际成人衰老的流行病学研究。这些将来自基础实验和实地研究的创新测量、现有测量的细化/缩短以及有希望的测量的比较验证的结果； 3）通过协调现有措施和增加新的工具箱措施，促进老龄化流行病学研究中的压力研究。这反过来又将带来改进分类法和研究方法的发现。改进的压力测量为推进基础研究领域、提高健康促进干预措施和政策的效力提供了巨大的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is now large-scale epidemiological evidence that aspects of chronic psychological stress, such as early adversity or job strain, and early life stress, predict earlier disease onset and mortality. Despite documentation of the importance of stress to health, there are several critical barriers that prevent progress in the epidemiological study of stress as a risk factor for disease. Measurement of stress is inherently complex and multi-level (e.g., social, psychological, physiological). There are few agreed upon 'gold standard' measures of stress, hence measurement is often inconsistent and superficial where heterogeneous constructs are conflated. There is also little understanding of the conditions under which stress exposure can promote vulnerability vs. resiliency to disease. Meanwhile, there have been rapid advances in the basic science of stress processes, which have helped to unpack the cognitive and affective components, links to brain and peripheral physiological responses, and richer measures of daily stress - e.g., through ecological momentary assessments using technology to obtain detailed profiles of exposures and contexts. Thus, epidemiological stress science can benefit from a more coherent multilevel model that encompasses better measurement of lifespan exposures and responses, including the social, psychological, and physiological indices of stress that have the greatest impact on health. The proposed R24 will recruit excellent scientists with relevant methods to apply their interests to th advancement of stress measurement across human development, with a focus on how lifespan stress affects health in mid to late life. Aims include: 1) Development of a stress measurement taxonomy, including guidelines for best measurement; 2) Development of a 'toolbox' of short measures of stress that can be used in epidemiological studies of adult aging internationally. These will be drawn from innovative measurement from basic experimental and field research, refinement/shortening of existing measures, and results from comparative validation of promising measures; and 3) Promotion of stress research in epidemiological studies of aging, both through harmonizing existing measures and adding new toolbox measures. This in turn will lead to discoveries that refine the taxonomy and research methodologies. Improved stress measurement offers tremendous opportunities for advancing the field of basic research, enhancing the efficacy of health-promotion interventions and policy.