Road to Heart Health: Paved with Good Intentions?

Background and Aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Prosociality, defined as positive other-regarding intentions and behaviours, is associated with positive health outcomes; however, few studies have evaluated its relationship with CVD. This study examines whether prosocial behaviours (formal volunteering and informal helping), intentions, and a combination of these, are associated with reduced CVD risk. Methods Data are from 6,549 adults in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, who were free of CVD at baseline. A prosocial intentions scale was derived from items assessing altruism and collectivism. Incident stroke and ischemic heart disease events were identified via medical and mortality record linkages. Cox proportional hazards models assessed risk of developing CVD in relation to prosocial intentions and behaviours, accounting for sociodemographic and health-related covariates. Results 960 incident CVD cases were identified during 11 years of follow-up. Frequent volunteers had an 18% lower CVD risk than those who never volunteer in fully adjusted models (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.70. 0.98). Informal helping was also associated with lower CVD risk (per additional helping behaviour, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92, 1.01). Having higher prosocial intentions was also weakly associated with lower CVD risk. Individuals who engaged in multiple forms of prosociality had a lower risk of CVD, including a 30% decrease (95% CI: 0.54, 0.89) for those engaging in 3 vs. 0 forms. Conclusions Diverse aspects of prosociality, including formal and informal behaviours and having an overall orientation toward being prosocial may be protective for CVD.