International Centre for Health and Society
2005 Public Seminar Series
Monday 7 February

All Welcome.RSVP essential
Seminars held on a Monday starting at 5pm followed by drinks at 6pm.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, UCL
'Positive Well-Being and Health-Related Biological Processess'.

Abstract
It has been proposed that positive well-being has favourable effects
on physical health and mortality. The pathways responsible for such
associations have not been extensively studied, nor is it clear
whether the influence of positive states is independent of the known
effects of negative states such as depression. This presentation will
describe a study in which we explored the possibility that happiness
and health might be linked through psychobiological processes -
namely differential central nervous system activation of the
neuroendocrine, immune, inflammatory and cardiovascular responses
that contribute to the development of physical disorders. Data were
analysed from a subsample of the Whitehall II cohort, with
physiological monitoring during everyday life and laboratory mental
stress testing. Happiness was assessed using ecological momentary
sampling over a working day. The results show associations between
happiness and a variety of biological responses, including cortisol
sampled over working and leisure days, ambulatory heart rate, and
fibrinogen responses to acute mental stress. Importantly, these
effects were independent of age, socioeconomic position, and
psychological distress. The findings will be discussed in the context
of the growing interest in positive psychology and well-being in
relation to health, and suggest that favourable regulation of
neuroendocrine, inflammatory and cardiovascular responses are
plausible mediators of associations between happiness and health.

Andrew Steptoe is British Heart Foundation professor of psychology at
UCL. His main research interest is in the pathways linking
psychosocial factors with health. Current studies include
investigations of psychobiological factors and socioeconomic
position, and emotions as triggers of acute cardiac events

RSVP: [log in to unmask]

Ms Patricia Crowley
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
1 - 19 Torrington Place, London  WC1E  6BT
T: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 76791708
F: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 7813 0280
 New Masters course offered see: www.ucl.ac.uk/healthandsociety

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