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. 2025 Jan 6:15:1499609.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1499609. eCollection 2024.

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

Marie-Josée Richer  1 , Sébastien Grenier  2   3 , Sonia Lupien  4   5 , Pierrich Plusquellec  1   4   6
Affiliations

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

Marie-Josée Richer et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: As people age, chronic stress, resulting in prolonged or repeated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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 problem-solving 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.

Discussion: 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: anxiety; coping strategies; cortisol; older adults; psychological distress; stress; stress management intervention.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Recruitment process flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean change observed between groups in strategic planning from the pretest to the 3-week posttest.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean change observed between groups in proactive coping from the pretest to the 3-week posttest.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean change observed between groups on the anxiety scale from the pretest to the 3-week posttest.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean change in AUCg value observed between groups from the pretest to the 3-week posttest.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Mean change between groups on the perceived stress scale from the pretest to the 3-month follow-up.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Mean change observed between groups at the AUCg level from the pretest to the 3-month follow-up.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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