Stress Measurement in Primary Care: Conceptual Issues, Barriers, Resources, and Recommendations for Study
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2022
Abstract
Objective:
Exposure to stressors in daily life and dysregulated stress responses are associated with increased risk for a variety of chronic mental and physical health problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, asthma, heart disease, certain cancers, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Despite this fact, stress exposure and responses are rarely assessed in the primary care setting and infrequently targeted for disease prevention or treatment.
Method:
In this narrative review, we describe the primary reasons for this striking disjoint between the centrality of stress for promoting disease and how rarely it is assessed by summarizing the main conceptual, measurement, practical, and reimbursement issues that have made stress difficult to routinely measure in primary care. The following issues will be reviewed: (1) assessment of stress in primary care; (2) biobehavioral pathways linking stress and illness; (3) the value of stress measurements for improving outcomes in primary care; (4) barriers to measuring and managing stress; and (5) key research questions relevant to stress assessment and intervention in primary care.
Results:
Based on our synthesis, we suggest several approaches that can be pursued to advance this work, including feasibility and acceptability studies, cost-benefit studies, and clinical improvement studies.
Conclusions:
Although stress is recognized as a key contributor to chronic disease risk and mortality, additional research is needed to determine how and when instruments for assessing life stress might be useful in the primary care setting, and how stress-related data could be integrated into disease prevention and treatment strategies to reduce chronic disease burden and improve human health and wellbeing.
Recommended Citation
Wulsin, L. R., Sagui-Henson, S. J., Roos, L. G., Wang, D., Jenkins, B., Cohen, B. E., Shah, A. J., & Slavich, G. M. (2022). Stress measurement in primary care: Conceptual issues, barriers, resources, and recommendations for study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 84(3), 267–275. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001051
Copyright
American Psychosomatic Society
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Psychosomatic Medicine, volume 84. issue 3, in 2022 following peer review. This article may not exactly replicate the final published version. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001051.