The association between the community SARS exposure and allostatic load among Chinese older adults

Previous studies have found that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was associated with the physical and psychological stress of those infected. However, research is sparse regarding the long-term health consequence of community SARS exposure for older adults.

Using data from the 2011 and 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we estimated multilevel regression models of allostatic load (AL) in the years after the SARS epidemic among 7735 respondents. Interaction terms between SARS epidemic exposure and social participation or community environment were included to examine potential effects.

We found that community SARS exposure was associated with greater AL for those who had no social participation. Among those who were in worse community environment, community SARS exposure was strongly related to elevated load in the cardiovascular system. However, for those had social participation and lived in better community environment, community SARS exposure manifested no association with AL years later. Active social participation and better community environment could offset the negative association between SARS exposure and AL.

Taken together, these findings helped determine the positive direction of future social efforts and policy decisions to guide the global recovery from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.