Social influences on trajectories of self-rated health: evidence from Britain, Germany, Denmark and the USA

Abstract

National differences in self-rated health trajectories and their social correlates may be attributed partly to welfare policies.

Longitudinal trends in good self-rated health: effects of age and birth cohort in a 25-year follow-up study in Sweden

“…American studies have reported worsening trends in SRH in several age groups in recent decades (Chen et al 2007;Zack et al 2004). A study of Britain, Germany, Denmark, and the USA found worsening SRH in older cohorts in Denmark and improved SRH in younger cohorts in USA (Sacker et al 2011). Several studies have reported poorer SRH with increasing age, which is consistent with our findings and in line with the increased morbidity with increasing age (McCullough and Laurenceau 2004;Sacker et al 2011;Zack et al 2004).…”

“…However, this research area is incompletely explored and differences between cohorts and populations may exist (Halford et al 2012;Sacker et al 2011;Zack et al 2004;Zheng et al 2011). Several longitudinal studies have reported improved SRH among older individuals (Ishizaki et al 2009;Zack et al 2004).…”

“…Several longitudinal studies have reported improved SRH among older individuals (Ishizaki et al 2009;Zack et al 2004). Furthermore, studies have shown that people generally tend to report poorer SRH with increasing age (Sacker et al 2011;Zheng et al 2011). However, in late life, SRH is improved, partly due to selective mortality.…”

“…It is important to assess the age and cohort effect since it gives the possibility to distinguish changes over time within individuals (age effects) from differences among individuals at baseline (cohort effects). Few studies have followed several cohorts for longitudinal trends in SRH by age and cohort (Chen et al 2007;Sacker et al 2011). Another methodological issue when studying SRH trends is to control for potential confounding factors (Ishizaki et al 2009;Mantzavinis et al 2005).…”

“…Another methodological issue when studying SRH trends is to control for potential confounding factors (Ishizaki et al 2009;Mantzavinis et al 2005). SRH has been associated with several variables, such as gender (af Sillen et al 2005), age (Idler 1993), sociodemographic factors (Kachi et al 2013;Sacker et al 2011), and lifestyle factors (Hsu et al 2013;Sodergren et al 2008). …”