Psychosocial relationship status and quality as predictors of exercise intervention adherence and substance use outcomes: Results from the STRIDE (CTN-0037) study

Social/intimate relationship status and quality are associated with health-promoting behaviors, while living alone or being isolated are adversely associated with physical and mental health outcomes. Limited work has investigated how particular components of one's social environment – usual living arrangements, satisfaction with those arrangements, and global social and family discord – are related to substance use reduction and intervention adherence. We investigated these questions in 270 individuals receiving study intervention for stimulant abuse/dependence through the multi-site Stimulant Reduction Intervention using Dosed Exercise (CTN-0037) trial. Using mixed effects modeling, results indicated that individuals with baseline social discord used stimulants on more days throughout the intervention period than those without social discord (d=0.39). An interaction between gender, usual living arrangements, and satisfaction with those arrangements indicated that women who lived alone and were dissatisfied with that arrangement reported greater days of stimulant use compared to several other groups (d≥1.46). Finally, individuals who reported usually living with a non-partner over the past three years attended a greater percentage of intervention sessions compared to those usually living with a partner (d=0.34). These results identify sample subgroups with adverse stimulant use and intervention adherence outcomes and suggest areas for future inquiry/intervention.