INSULIN AND GLUCOSE - RELATIONSHIPS WITH HASSLES, ANGER, AND HOSTILITY IN NONDIABETIC OLDER ADULTS

Relationships of psychosocial factors (anger, hostility, hassles, and caregiving) with fasting insulin and glucose levels were examined. Sam ples included two groups of nondiabetic adults (mean age = 69.4 years) : spouse caregivers (CG) of individuals with diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD) (N = 78) and spouses of nondemented controls (CO) (N = 72 ) matched for age and gender. The groups were assessed twice with a 15 - to 18-month hiatus. To obtain more stable assessments, all biopsycho social measures were averaged over time. Psychosocial factors were ass ociated with insulin and glucose, even after controlling for significa nt health variables: obesity, lipids, and cardiovascular disease. As h ypothesized, CG with high anger-out/hostility (AOHO) had significantly higher glucose levels than all other group combinations. The glucose levels for subjects with high hassles or high AOHO were significantly higher than those for subjects who were low on both of these factors. For insulin, a three-way interaction occurred among AOHO, hassles, and gender-hormone replacement therapy (HRT); in women taking HRT, no rel ationships occurred between insulin with AOHO and hassles. In women no t taking HRT, those with high AOHO and high hassles had significantly higher insulin levels than the other three combinations, whereas in me n, those with either high AOHO or high hassles had significantly highe r insulin levels than men who were low on both of these factors. Given these results, future research should examine the degree to which int eractions between metabolic processes with psychosocial variables, gen der, and HRT have long term health consequences in nondiabetics.