Psychosocial biomarker research: integrating social, emotional and economic factors into population studies of aging and health

Abstract

There are complex reciprocal relationships between health and social, emotional and economic factors in aging populations. Social and affective neurosciences are rapidly developing an understanding of the mechanisms underlying these phenomena using sophisticated behavioural, neuroimaging and psychophysiological methods. These techniques are often complex and expensive, so are generally used in relatively small selected samples rather than in large-scale cohort studies. However, an understanding of the significance of these processes in health and well-being depends on integrating findings from social and affective neuroscience into population-level studies. The aim of this article is to describe how a population perspective on the determinants of health and well-being in old age articulates with the agenda of social, affective and economic neuroscience, particularly through the application of psychosocial biomarker research. Social and affective neuroscience and epidemiological approaches provide complementary research strategies for understanding the mechanisms linking social, emotional and economic factors with health risk. This will be illustrated primarily from findings from two studies conducted at University College London, the Whitehall II Study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Fig. 1

Mean salivary cortisol on waking and 10, 20, 30 and 60 min after waking in older men and women in higher (solid line) and lower (dashed line) social status groups. Values are adjusted for gender, body mass, waist/hip ratio, smoking status and time of waking. Individuals who delayed between waking and taking the waking saliva sample were excluded. Error bars are standard error of the mean. Adapted from (Wright and Steptoe, 2005).