Longitudinal stability and interrelations between health behavior and subjective well-being in a follow-up of nine years

Chinese women's years of education and subjective well-being: an empirical analysis based on ordered Logit model and coupling coordination model

In modern society, the improvement of women's education level has become one of the important indicators of national development and social progress. Although there are many useful explorations on the relationship between education and subjective well-being, the research on women's years of education and subjective well-being is very limited. The article focuses on women's years of education to determine whether and how to affect subjective well-being. This study is based on the China general social survey in 2021. The ordered Logit model was used to analyze the impact of women's years of education on subjective well-being, and a binary coupling coordination model was constructed to test the above two variables. The results show that the longer the education years of women, the stronger the subjective well-being. The benchmark regression results show that women's years of education have positive and negative effects on subjective well-being through economic status, physical and mental health, ecological environment, social cognition and personal cognition. The analysis of coupling coordination degree shows that the coupling between the years of education and subjective well-being of women in coastal areas and economically developed areas is the strongest, and the subjective well-being is better realized by increasing the years of education. Based on the above research results, this paper provides some practical suggestions for improving women's subjective well-being, and provides some valuable references for women to effectively balance husband-wife relationship, family relationship and work relationship, improve women's years of education and better obtain happiness.

Positive cardiovascular health: longitudinal investigation of sustained health behavior in a cross-lagged model

Objective

Our study focuses on the role of psychological states in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and explores the potential of positive psychological factors in reducing CVD risk. While existing research has predominantly examined negative mental states and risk behavior, this longitudinal study takes a novel approach by investigating positive psychological wellbeing and its impact on sustained health behavior.

Method

The research involved participants (n = 502) with medium to high cardiovascular risk who underwent a comprehensive risk assessment in 2012, followed by written risk communication. Health behavior and psychological variables were measured in 2012 and 2019. A cross-lagged panel was employed to repeat measures of a cardiovascular health index with latent factors.

Results

Results indicated an excellent fit for the model (RMSEA = 0.0644, CFI = 0.936, TLI = 0.921, SRMR = 0.050), with significant associations between the observed variables (p < 0.05) and created latent factors. Furthermore, the model implied significant bivariate correlations (p < 0.05) between latent constructs of sustained health behavior and positive psychological states in 2012 and 2019. A significant regression relationship between Health Awareness Index 2012 and 2019, between Psychological wellbeing in 2012 and 2019 (B = 1.103 p = 0.038), latent factors could be identified (B = 1.103 p = 0.038) using cross-lagged panel model. Results highlighted the importance of cardiovascular health awareness, subjective risk perception, and self-directed efforts in facilitating health behavior change.

Conclusion

Relationships between psychological wellbeing and health awareness emphasize that positive experiences and reinforcement are crucial in sustaining optimal health behavior. Our findings offer a new perspective on cardiovascular risk screening and preventive interventions. Extending cardiovascular risk screening with psychological measures may broaden prevention opportunities by including psychological elements reinforcing positive psychological states. The findings suggest that an effective prevention program must consider stabilizing and maintaining positive psychological states to achieve lasting improvements in cardiovascular health.

The mediating role of health behaviors in the relationship between internal locus of control and life satisfaction in public health students

Well-being is a continuous process requiring decisions and actions to maintain or build health. This study examines the indirect effect of health locus of control on life satisfaction via healthy behaviors based on living systems theory. Participants were 730 students of various majors related to medicine and health, aged between 19 and 30 (M = 22.29, SD = 1.64), including 79.04% women. Self-report measures were used to assess life satisfaction, multidimensional health locus of control, and health behavior. Women scored higher than men on the total health behavior scale, especially in a healthy diet and preventive behavior. Men scored higher than women on internal health locus of control (HLC), while women scored higher than men on the powerful others HLC in making decisions about their health. The study confirmed the mediating effect of healthy behavior on the relationship between the internal HLC and life satisfaction. The present mechanism highlights the crucial role of internal motivation in increasing subjective well-being by maintaining health behaviors among young adults. The role of intervention programs focused on improving internal HLC and health behaviors is discussed.

A healthy lifestyle can support future sexual satisfaction: results from a 9-year longitudinal survey

BACKGROUND

Previous follow-up studies have demonstrated the association between good health behavior and good sexual functioning for men, but the longitudinal relationship between multiple health behaviors and satisfaction with sex life remains understudied.

AIM

The aim of the study was to explore whether good health behavior associates with improved satisfaction with sex life for men and women in a follow-up of 9 years.

METHODS

This cohort study utilized survey data from the population-based Health and Social Support study. It includes responses from 10 671 working-aged Finns. Using linear regression models, we examined a composite sum score representing 4 health behaviors (range, 0-4) in 2003 as a predictor of satisfaction with sex life in 2012. The analyses adjusted for various covariates in 2003, including satisfaction with sex life, living status, age, gender, education, number of diseases, and importance of sex life in 2012.

OUTCOMES

The outcome in the study was satisfaction with sex life in the year 2012.

RESULTS

Participants who exhibited better health behavior at baseline demonstrated improved satisfaction with sex life when compared with those with poorer health behavior (β = -0.046, P = .009), even when controlling for the aforementioned covariates. The positive effect of reporting all beneficial health behaviors vs none of them was greater than having none vs 3 chronic conditions. Furthermore, this was almost half the effect of how satisfaction with sex life in 2003 predicted its level in 2012. These findings were supported by an analysis of the congruence of health behavior in the observation period from 2003 to 2012 predicting changes in satisfaction with sex life.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

The results could serve as a motivator for a healthy lifestyle.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

The current study used a longitudinal large sample and a consistent survey procedure, and it explored the personal experience of satisfaction instead of sexual function. However, the study is limited in representing today's diversity of gender, since the options for gender at the time of survey were only male and female.

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that engaging in healthy behaviors contributes to the maintenance and enhancement of satisfaction with sex life over time.

Associations between subjective well-being, number of teeth, and self-rated mastication in Japanese adults: A cross-sectional study

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the risk factors for low levels of subjective well-being (SWB) in the general population of Japan, specifically, the impact of the number of teeth and self-rated mastication. The surveyed population consisted of individuals aged between 40 and 79 years from Yamagata prefecture, Japan. A postal self-administered questionnaire survey of respondents lifestyles, medical history, oral health, and dietary intake, was conducted from 2017 to 2021. We included 6846 participants to confirm the independent associations between SWB and several parameters using multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis to estimate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Individuals with < 20 teeth and poor mastication ability had a 1.3-fold risk for low levels of SWB compared with individuals with ≥ 20 teeth with good mastication ability (adjusted odds ratios = 1.300, 95% confidence intervals = 1.043-1.621, P = .020). There were no differences between individuals with good mastication ability, regardless of the number of remaining teeth. Our study emphasizes not only the importance of having ≥ 20 teeth and good mastication ability for high levels of SWB but also the importance of restoring mastication ability using some form of prosthesis, to facilitate a high level of SWB when the number of remaining teeth is < 20.

Does Subjective Well-Being Improve Self-Rated Health from Undergraduate Studies to Three Years after Graduation in China?

The health status of emerging adults is at risk. Although subjective well-being is one of the factors closely associated with health, their longitudinal relationship is not clear among emerging adults. The study aimed to investigate the prospective relationship between self-rated health and subjective well-being in emerging adults. The study collected longitudinal data from a total of 1021 Chinese college students (537 males and 484 females) for five years, including two years in college and three years after graduation. In the baseline survey, the average age of the sample was 21.57 years old. Descriptive statistics indicated that both self-rated health and subjective well-being significantly decreased from the senior year of college to the year after graduation. Correlation analysis revealed that self-rated health and subjective well-being had a significant positive relationship. In the five-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel model, subjective well-being unidirectionally predicted self-rated health. In other words, the subjective well-being in the previous year could positively predict self-rated health in the following year, but the previous self-rated health could not predict subsequent subjective well-being. Given the significance of emerging adulthood to individual development, more attention and care should be dedicated to improving subjective well-being so as to maintain good health and engagement in work.

Association between subjective well-being and all-cause mortality among older adults in China

BACKGROUND

Although several studies in high-income countries have suggested a positive association between subjective well-being (SWB) and mortality, studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries, such as China, are scarce. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between SWB and all-cause mortality among the older Chinese population.

METHODS

Data were from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), a population-based longitudinal cohort study in 22 of 31 provinces in mainland China. A total of 13,282 individuals aged 65 ≥ years who were recruited in 2002 and followed-up until 2018 were included. SWB was assessed with an eight-item tool covering life satisfaction, positive affect (including optimism, happiness, personal control and conscientiousness) and negative affect (including anxiety, loneliness and uselessness). Cox proportional hazards regression methods were carried out to estimate the association between SWB and total mortality, adjusting for a wide range of potential confounders. Subgroup analyses and interaction analyses were further conducted.

RESULTS

During the 16.5 years of follow-up, 8459 deaths were identified. Greater SWB was independently associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.81-0.89) after adjustment for age, sex, marital status, education level, place of residence, smoking status, drinking, exercise, diet, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and cancer. Of the eight individual SWB symptoms, only 2 items, feelings of uselessness (adjusted HR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89-0.99) and happiness (adjusted HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.86-0.95), were significantly associated with total mortality. Associations remained significant across all subgroups regardless of different characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher SWB overall and 2 certain symptoms (feelings of uselessness and happiness) were independently associated with all-cause mortality risk among older Chinese adults. The association was consistent across different groups, suggesting that promoting a healthier SWB may be beneficial to all older individuals irrespective of their characteristics.

Maintaining psychological well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: The beneficial effects of health-promoting behaviors and sense of control

The present research reports the findings of three studies, with objectives to demonstrate the impacts of health-promoting behaviors on psychological well-being as well as the mediating roles of sense of control (SOC) and perceived severity of COVID-19 in these relationships. Study 1 was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 473 middle-aged and older Chinese adults before the COVID-19 pandemic to assess their health-promoting behaviors, personal mastery and perceived constraints, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Study 2 was conducted during the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong (between March to April 2020), in which 292 participants from Study 1 were successfully contacted to report their emotional responses to the pandemic. Using a different sample, Study 3 was a longitudinal study that measured 495 participants' health-promoting behaviors, personal mastery and perceived constraints at baseline, and their perceived severity and mental health outcomes during the outbreak of omicron cases in Hong Kong (i.e., the fifth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak) in March 2022. All three studies demonstrate that the beneficial effects of health behaviors can be extended to psychological well-being and reveal possible underlying mechanisms through enhancing one's SOC and lowering perceived severity of the COVID-19 outbreak. These results provide important insights to future health promotion programs for improving psychological resources and psychological well-being of middle-aged and older adults in face of disease-related threats.

Does exercise participation promote happiness?: Mediations and heterogeneities

This paper uses a nationally representative and large-scale dataset from China to empirically examine the relationship between exercise participation and happiness. To address the problem of reverse causality between the two factors, the instrumental variable (IV) approach is used to deal with endogeneity to some extent. It is demonstrated that higher frequencies of exercise participation are positively related to happiness. Findings also demonstrate that physical exercise could significantly decrease depressive disorders, improves self-rated health conditions and reduces the frequency of health problems affecting people's work and life. At the same time, all of above health factors significantly influence subjective wellbeing. When these health variables are included in regressions, the correlation between exercise participation and happiness declines. This confirms that physical activity helps to improve happiness by enhancing mental and overall health conditions. In addition, results show that physical activities are more prominently related to happiness for male, older and unmarried individuals and those living in rural areas, lacking social security and with higher levels of depression as well as lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, a series of robustness checks are carried out and exercise participation's positive role in improving happiness is further confirmed using different happiness measures and instrumental variables, various IV models, as well as penalized machine learning methods and placebo tests. With the increasing emphasis of improving happiness as an important goal in the global public health policy, findings of this paper have important policy implications for enhancing subjective wellbeing.

The Relationship between Social Participation and Subjective Well-Being among Older People in the Chinese Culture Context: The Mediating Effect of Reciprocity Beliefs

It is demonstrated that the subjective well-being (SWB) of older people greatly relies on their social participation. However, there are few studies on reciprocity beliefs as a mediating mechanism between social participation and SWB. In this study, 297 participants aged 60 and over in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, completed a questionnaire of social participation, reciprocity beliefs, and SWB. We used multiple linear regression and mediation analyses to verify the mediating effect of reciprocity beliefs. Results showed that social participation was positively relative to SWB and reciprocity beliefs, and reciprocity beliefs played an intermediary role in social participation and SWB. These findings suggest the importance of social participation for SWB, with reciprocity beliefs (behaviors) playing a positive mediating role, particularly in China. In conclusion, analysis of the mediating effect of reciprocity beliefs provides us with knowledge that could help in achieving a healthy old age. Additionally, this study opens up new perspectives of research.

The Relationship between Alcohol Drinking Indicators and Self-Rated Mental Health (SRMH): Standardized European Alcohol Survey (SEAS)

Given that the self-perception of mental health is an important predictor of health outcomes and wellbeing, it is important to identify the indicators of mental health associated with alcohol consumption in order to reduce alcohol-related harms. This study used data from the cross-sectional RARHA SEAS survey (2015) in the Croatian general population, aged 18-64 years (n = 1500). Several aspects of drinking behaviors and alcohol-related harms were measured, as well as personal and sociodemographic factors. Logistic regression found a significant association between alcohol's harm to others (AHTO) and poor self-rated mental health (SRMH) (OR = 0.752; 95% CI 0.601-0.941) in the total sample, as well as in the group of participants who rarely drank alcohol (OR = 0.504; 95% CI 0.322-0.787) in the last 12 months. More frequent consumers reported poor SRMH if they had at least one harmful effect from drinking (OR 0.538; 95% CI 0.295-0.980). Younger age, higher education, professional activity, and living with someone else in a household contributed to better SRMH. AHTO has been identified as a strong predictor of poor SRMH in the general population. Targeted public health and preventive measures are needed with specific approaches for different types of alcohol consumers.

Changed health behavior improves subjective well-being and vice versa in a follow-up of 9 years

Background

Previous research on health behavior and subjective well-being has mainly focused on interindividual differences or explored certain domains of health behavior. Good health behavior and subjective well-being at baseline can predict each other after a follow-up. In the present cohort study, we explored the outcomes of change for an individual i.e., how changed health behavior is reflected in subsequent subjective well-being and vice versa.

Methods

Data (n = 10,855) originates from a population-based Health and Social Support (HeSSup) study on working-age Finns in 2003 and 2012. A composite measure of health behavior included physical activity, dietary habits, alcohol consumption, and smoking status (range 0–4, worst–best) and a composite measure of subjective well-being (with reversed scoring) included three life assessments, i.e., interest, happiness, and ease in life, and perceived loneliness (range 4–20, best–worst). Different multiple linear regression models were used to study how changes in health behavior predict subjective well-being and the opposite, how changes in subjective well-being predict health behavior.

Results

A positive change in health behavior from 2003 to 2012 predicted better subjective well-being (i.e., on average 0.31 points lower subjective well-being sum score), whereas a negative change predicted poorer subjective well-being (i.e., 0.37 points higher subjective well-being sum score) (both: p < 0.001) compared to those study subjects who had no change in health behavior. Similarly, when a positive and negative change in subjective well-being was studied, these figures were 0.071 points better and 0.072 points worse (both: p < 0.001) health behavior sum score, respectively. When the magnitude of the effect of change was compared to the range of scale of the outcome the effect of health behavior change appeared stronger than that of subjective well-being.

Conclusion

Changes in health behavior and subjective well-being have long-term effects on the level of the other, the effect of the first being slightly stronger than vice versa. These mutual long-term benefits can be used as a motivator in health promotion on individual and societal levels.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12955-022-01972-4.