The relationship between life change and relative autonomic balance

The frequency of life changes, as measured by questionnaires, is reported to increase prior to illness onset. Each event presumably adds to the accumulating amount of adaptive stress that confronts the individual. Total frequencies, or weighted scores, are considered important etiological factors in the illness. A more direct measure of stress is the A test of relative autonomic balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. To assess the relationship between these two measures 76 undergraduates were given both a life change questionnaire and the A test. Significant negative correlations were expected because both low A and high life change scores supposedly measure adaptive stress. No significant correlations were obtained; female Ss (N = 41) reported significantly more life changes than did male Ss (N = 26). The etiological value of life changes is scrutinized, and it is hypothesized that these questionnaires may be effective to identify stress only in populations that already have existent active or latent disease processes.