Objective: To describe the occurrence of "health realists", "health pessimists" and "health optimists" in a non-patient population by identifying cases of concordance and discordance between doctor-evaluated health and self-evaluated health and to describe the distribution of selected life-style-related physiological risk factors among these health-groups.
Design: Comparative study.
Setting: Primary health care.
Subjects: 456 middle-aged persons registered with a general practitioner (GP) were after a general health screening invited to a health discussion. Prior to the health screening the participants had assigned their health status to one of five categories ranging from "very poor" to "excellent". After the health discussion the GP rated the participants' general health status on a visual analogue scale. On basis of this information patients were classified as "health realists", "health optimists" and "health pessimists".
Results: 54% of the participants could be classified as "good-health realists", 14% as "poor-health realists", 22% as "health optimists", and 10% as "health pessimists". "Poor-health realists" had the greatest accumulation of risk factors, followed by "health optimists", "health pessimists" and "good-health realists". Among the "health pessimists" there was a significantly higher risk score of future cardiovascular disease and poor physical endurance compared with the "good-health realists".
Conclusion: Discordance between doctor-evaluated health and self-evaluated health was found in 32% of the cases studied. "Health pessimists" had more risk factors than "good-health realists" even though the GPs had rated their general health status as good in both cases.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02813430410000941 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Do discrepancies between subjective and objective health shift over time in later life? A markov transition model.
Soc Sci Med
December 2024
"Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address:
Subjective health (SH) deteriorates less rapidly than objective health (OH) in older adults. However, scant evidence exists regarding if discrepancies between SH and OH shift in the same individuals over time. We explore whether such discrepancies change over time in a sample of older adults living in England, through a prospective, observational cohort study design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow Do Discrepancies between Subjective and Objective Health Predict the Risk of Injurious Falls? A Study of Community-Dwelling Swedish Older Adults.
J Am Med Dir Assoc
August 2024
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholm Gerontology Research Centre, Stockholm, Sweden.
Objectives: Previous studies demonstrated that discrepancies between subjective and objective health measures are associated with physical and mental health-related outcomes in older adults. We investigate whether such discrepancies are also associated with risk of injurious falls in community-dwelling Swedish older adults.
Design: A prospective, observational cohort study.
Factors mitigate the effect of widowhood's mental health impact: A longitudinal test from individual, familial, and social perspectives.
Am J Orthopsychiatry
October 2024
Department of Social Work, School of Social Development, East China Normal University.
Although widowhood has been considered a significant risk factor for mental health, the duration of its effects and the potential mitigating factors involved in this relationship remain inadequately understood among Chinese older adults. This study investigates the longitudinal relationship between widowhood and depression and examines the interaction effects of health asymmetry, the number of children, and urban-rural differences from individual, familial, and social perspectives. A sample of 9,563 individuals for the four rounds period (from 2011 to 2018) is obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth asymmetry as a predictor of depressive symptomatology over time among older European adults: A growth curve analysis.
J Psychosom Res
March 2023
Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Objective: Subjective (SH) and objective health (OH) measures are associated with depressive symptomatology in older adults. We explored whether the discrepancy between SH and OH (operationalised as 'health asymmetry' with four categories: 'health optimistic', 'health pessimistic' and 'good health realistic' and 'poor health realistic') may also relate to depressive symptomatology 1) cross-sectionally, and 2) longitudinally, among older European adults.
Methods: Adults (n = 26,520), aged 50+, from 11 European countries, were assessed over six waves of data collection (2006-2020) in the SHARE study.
A five-year study of older adults' health incongruence: consistency, functional changes and subsequent survival.
Psychol Health
November 2011
Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, 319 Harvard Street Stop #8380, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202, USA.
In later life, optimistic health appraisals promote well-being and survival, whereas pessimistic appraisals can be harmful. This study contrasted subjective health (SH) appraisals with objective health (OH) to identify realists, whose ratings were congruent (SH = OH), distinguishing them from health pessimists (SH < OH) and health optimists (SH > OH) with incongruent ratings. Health congruence and functional well-being of 757 older adults were assessed via two interviews conducted 5 years apart.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!