Prospective associations between life stress, allostatic load, and combined modifiable lifestyle behaviours over 12-year in the Longitudinal Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study

The research seek to examine the effect of life stress at baseline on the development of allostatic load at 12-year follow-up, and to determine the extent to which combined modifiable lifestyle behaviours mediate this association using community dwelling adults (≥25 years) from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study. The Australian National Health Survey found an upward trend in prevalence of psychological distress among Australian adults from 2014 to 2018. It was estimated that 13% or 2.4 million Australian adults reported high or very high level of psychological distress from daily life. Chronic exposure to life stress increases the likelihood of adopting health-damaging behaviours such as smoking, over-eating or alcohol overconsumption as coping mechanisms. Allostatic load is a conceptual model indicating “wear and tear” on the body from chronic stress resulting from dysregulation across a number of physiological systems. A high allostatic load index represents greater bodily wear and tear from chronic stress, and serves as a catalyst to the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. Health-promoting lifestyle behaviours may confer beneficial effects to alleviate some of the physiological and behavioural impacts on the human body, thus lowering the allostatic load and chronic disease risks. The data was collected by a wide network of researchers from organisation including but not limited to Bakers Heart and Diabetes Institute, Monash University, and University of Western Australia. All data were collected by trained professionals using validated questionnaires and standardised equipment. Variables will need to be coded according to the variables of interest for this research project. For example, life stress variable will need to be derived from responses from multiple questions from the dataset. Similarly, an allostatic load score will be derived from aggregating serological markers that are present in this dataset. Investigating the associations between life stress, allostatic load, and the effect of combined modifiable lifestyle behaviours will inform the development of evidence-based recommendations to target specific lifestyle behaviours to promote optimal health in adults.