The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The interaction between individualism and wellbeing in predicting mortality: Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe

The interaction between individualism and wellbeing in predicting mortality: Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe
The interaction between individualism and wellbeing in predicting mortality: Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe

The link between greater wellbeing and longevity is well documented. The aim of the current study was to test whether this association is consistent across individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The sample consisted of 13,596 participants from 11 European countries, each of which was assigned an individualism score according to Hofstede et al.'s (Cultures and organizations: software of the mind, McGraw Hill, New York, 2010) cultural dimension of individualism. We tested whether individualism moderated the cross-sectional association between wellbeing and self-rated health or the longitudinal association between wellbeing and mortality risk. Our analysis revealed a significant interaction between individualism and wellbeing such that the association between wellbeing and self-rated health or risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease was stronger in more individualistic countries. However, the interaction between wellbeing and individualism was not significant in analysis predicting all-cause mortality. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm our finding and to explore the factors responsible for this culturally dependent effect.

Cultural dimensions, Individualism, Longevity, Self-rated health, Wellbeing
0160-7715
1-11
Okely, Judith A.
246271bb-d2cd-49bf-86c3-6f41ba2a77ed
Weiss, Alexander
c6f42bcd-c721-4862-9d31-7ee4598aa4d7
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8
Okely, Judith A.
246271bb-d2cd-49bf-86c3-6f41ba2a77ed
Weiss, Alexander
c6f42bcd-c721-4862-9d31-7ee4598aa4d7
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8

Okely, Judith A., Weiss, Alexander and Gale, Catharine R. (2018) The interaction between individualism and wellbeing in predicting mortality: Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 41 (1), 1-11. (doi:10.1007/s10865-017-9871-x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The link between greater wellbeing and longevity is well documented. The aim of the current study was to test whether this association is consistent across individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The sample consisted of 13,596 participants from 11 European countries, each of which was assigned an individualism score according to Hofstede et al.'s (Cultures and organizations: software of the mind, McGraw Hill, New York, 2010) cultural dimension of individualism. We tested whether individualism moderated the cross-sectional association between wellbeing and self-rated health or the longitudinal association between wellbeing and mortality risk. Our analysis revealed a significant interaction between individualism and wellbeing such that the association between wellbeing and self-rated health or risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease was stronger in more individualistic countries. However, the interaction between wellbeing and individualism was not significant in analysis predicting all-cause mortality. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm our finding and to explore the factors responsible for this culturally dependent effect.

Text
s10865-017-9871-x - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (312kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 3 July 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 July 2017
Published date: 1 February 2018
Keywords: Cultural dimensions, Individualism, Longevity, Self-rated health, Wellbeing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 418779
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418779
ISSN: 0160-7715
PURE UUID: e0376432-a31c-4726-b73c-dada1cfcd604
ORCID for Catharine R. Gale: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8638

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Mar 2018 17:30
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:35

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Judith A. Okely
Author: Alexander Weiss

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×