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Self-rated health in European countries – determining factors

Gashi, Lumnie LU (2014) NEKP01 20142
Department of Economics
Abstract
Self-rated health (SRH) is an internationally known concept in epidemiological research. It is considered as an efficacious way of determining the overall health of individuals and population. While the association between self-rated health and mortality has been well documented, since SRH also encompasses a subjective element where attitudes, perceptions and psychosocial factors are active more research needs to be done to fully understand what SRH is composed of. This paper aims to identify key variables in the determination of SRH with a special interest in social networks representing subjective elements of health using an ordered probit model with data on people aged 50+ from the SHARE study wave 4, from 16 European countries. Results... (More)
Self-rated health (SRH) is an internationally known concept in epidemiological research. It is considered as an efficacious way of determining the overall health of individuals and population. While the association between self-rated health and mortality has been well documented, since SRH also encompasses a subjective element where attitudes, perceptions and psychosocial factors are active more research needs to be done to fully understand what SRH is composed of. This paper aims to identify key variables in the determination of SRH with a special interest in social networks representing subjective elements of health using an ordered probit model with data on people aged 50+ from the SHARE study wave 4, from 16 European countries. Results reveal that health indicators such as chronic disorder, mobility and Activities of daily living (ADL) have the strongest effect on SRH, followed by health behavior and socio-demographic variables. The social network variables, co-residence of partner and child and adjacency shorter than 1 km to child, are more difficult to interpret due to ambiguous output results, but in general display a positive effect. The associations of the social network variables and the health behavior variables smoking and drinking together also differentiate between countries. Therefore, more research needs to be done encompassing these specific variables. (Less)
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author
Gashi, Lumnie LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKP01 20142
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Self-rated health, SHARE, Ordered probit model, Health determinants, Cross-sectional data
language
English
id
4730507
date added to LUP
2014-11-07 14:32:59
date last changed
2014-11-07 14:32:59
@misc{4730507,
  abstract     = {{Self-rated health (SRH) is an internationally known concept in epidemiological research. It is considered as an efficacious way of determining the overall health of individuals and population. While the association between self-rated health and mortality has been well documented, since SRH also encompasses a subjective element where attitudes, perceptions and psychosocial factors are active more research needs to be done to fully understand what SRH is composed of. This paper aims to identify key variables in the determination of SRH with a special interest in social networks representing subjective elements of health using an ordered probit model with data on people aged 50+ from the SHARE study wave 4, from 16 European countries. Results reveal that health indicators such as chronic disorder, mobility and Activities of daily living (ADL) have the strongest effect on SRH, followed by health behavior and socio-demographic variables. The social network variables, co-residence of partner and child and adjacency shorter than 1 km to child, are more difficult to interpret due to ambiguous output results, but in general display a positive effect. The associations of the social network variables and the health behavior variables smoking and drinking together also differentiate between countries. Therefore, more research needs to be done encompassing these specific variables.}},
  author       = {{Gashi, Lumnie}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Self-rated health in European countries – determining factors}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}