Abstract
Background: The sense of coherence (SOC) is reported to influence health, but health may also have an impact on SOC. The objective of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between SOC and selected self-reported and physician-assessed health outcomes over a period of 10 and 20 years and to determine the predominant direction of the associations.Methods: We conducted a population-based, longitudinal study, involving 392 participants (188 females and 204 males; mean age 43.01 years) who were followed for a median of 10 and 18 years. Analyses of variance were carried out to examine the longitudinal associations between SOC at baseline and health outcomes (i.e., self-rated health status, SHS; physical health status assessed by a physician, PHS; self-reported satisfaction with life, SWL) at follow-ups. The direction of associations was examined using a cross-lagged model on correlation coefficients.Results: There were significant group effects for SOC at baseline on SHS at 20-year follow-up (F = 4.09, p = 0.018, ηp2 = 0.041), as well as on SWL at 10-year (F = 12.67, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.072) and at 20-year follow-up (F = 8.09, p < 0.1, ηp2 = 0.069). SHS (r = 0.238, p < 0.01), PHS (r = −0.140, p < 0.05) and SWL (r = 0.400, p < 0.01) predicted SOC at 10-year follow-up stronger than vice versa. The direction of associations between SOC and health parameters at 20-year follow-up was less consistent.Conclusions: The long-term associations between SOC and self-reported and physician-assessed health may be reciprocal in community-dwelling adults. More research is needed to examine the predictive power of health on SOC and whether interventions targeted at improving health parameters, may impact SOC.
Highlights
Already 50 years have passed since Antonovsky introduced a salutogenic model focusing on the origins of health and well-being [1]
In the 10-year model, there was no significant change in health status (i.e., Self-rated health status (SHS), Physical health status (PHS), and Satisfaction with life (SWL)), whereas in the 20-year model physical health status decreased significantly regardless of sense of coherence (SOC) at baseline
Our results showed that SOC at baseline appears to have a significant influence on SHS at 20-year-follow-up as well as on SWL at 10- and 20-year follow-up, but not on PHS
Summary
Already 50 years have passed since Antonovsky introduced a salutogenic model focusing on the origins of health and well-being [1]. This model seeks to explain why some individuals are capable of maintaining and even improving their health in stressful life situations. The main concept behind the salutogenic approach is the sense of coherence (SOC). SOC can be understood as the capacity of a person to cope with stressors in daily life by identifying and using their generalized resistance resources (GRR, e.g., intelligence, ego identity, social support, cultural and preventive health orientation) to maintain and strengthen their health [3, 4]. The objective of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between SOC and selected self-reported and physician-assessed health outcomes over a period of 10 and 20 years and to determine the predominant direction of the associations
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