Interleukin-6, Depression, and Religious Coping in Older Seventh-day Adventists
Prior research suggests that depression and chronic inflammation have a bidirectional relationship. This study examined how depressive symptoms and the inflammatory marker, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interact over time in 287 older adults (54% female, 63% White, Mage = 66, SDage = 10.9) from the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study and whether religious coping moderated this relationship. Depressive symptoms and IL-6 were assessed in 2006-7 and 2010-11. Results of the hierarchical multiple regressions indicate that initial depressive symptoms predicted IL-6 three to five years later, and that this relationship was moderated by positive religious coping. Moreover, negative religious coping predicted depressive symptoms three to five years later but IL-6 did not. Therefore, depression likely increases inflammation and positive religious coping may exacerbates these effects when depressive symptoms are higher. Finally, IL-6 did not predict later depressive symptoms and so the relationship between depression and inflammation may be unidirectional with depressive symptoms increasing inflammation over time. It may be that in a religious sample, any negative religious coping adversely effects inflammation. And, positive religious coping in those with depressive symptoms also adversely effects inflammation perhaps because any negative religious coping can counteract the benefits of positive religious coping.
Clinical Psychology, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Depression; Religion and Psychology; Seventh-day Adventists, Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study; Hierarchical Multiple Regression; Religious Coping
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