Significant Predictors Of Health Research Articles

Social cognitive factors predicting the health of elders.

The social cognitive model of health is primarily concerned with influences on a person's decisions to perform health behaviors. In this study, the relationships among social cognitive factors reflecting enabling skills (learned resourcefulness), internal motivation for health (health self-determinism), and help responses (coping responses) and a measure of physical and psychosocial health were examined in 137 chronically ill elders. Gender, race, and number of chronic conditions were predictors of learned resourcefulness. Learned resourcefulness was associated with the use of informal help, whereas health self-determinism was related to self-help and formal help. None of the help responses were significant predictors of health. Model testing revealed that greater resourcefulness or skill in coping with stressful situations was the most important predictor of health. Strategies are recommended to help elders achieve optimal health.

Health insurance in the near elderly population

A number of studies have documented therising number of persons under age 65 who do not havehealth insurance. This paper focuses on the healthinsurance status of near elderly, those persons age 55through 64. A comparison age group, persons age 45through 54, is selected for benchmark purposes. Utilizing data from the 1996 Current PopulationSurvey, logistic regression is used to generateinsurance status prediction equations for both agegroups. Household characteristics, income, educationand employment are found to be significant predictorsof health insurance status, but fewer-than-expecteddifferences are found in comparing equations betweenthe two age groups. Results are discussed in thecontext of recent proposals to extend Medicarecoverage, the effect of Medicare policy changes on thenumber of near elderly persons without healthinsurance, and how prolonged periods of time withouthealth insurance may lead to an increased burden onMedicare as newly eligible Medicare recipients seekservices to address their pent-up demand for healthcare.

Spousal death, a threat to women's health: paid work as a "resistance resource".

This study examined the paid work role as a predictor of widows' health during conjugal bereavement. The sample of widows aged 55-75 bereaved for two years prior to the study (N = 157) was identified through recorded death certificates as the surviving spouses of deceased men. Work history and work attitude were statistically significant predictors of health during bereavement.

Stress among factory workers in a developing country

This cross-sectional study reveals that a significant proportion (35%) of the sampled population of factory workers experienced measurable health problems in form of anxiety, sleep disturbance, depression, somatic complaints and other clinical indicators of stress. Job stress and social support levels experienced by the group of workers judged ‘sick’ by the General Health Questionnaire ( Goldberg DP. Manual for the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson, 1978) were significantly higher than the control group, and particularly so for employees in the lower levels of work hierarchy. In consonance with findings from the literature, job stress had a significant impact on mental health, with all the job stress parameters accounting for 41% of the variation in the general health. Those job stress variables that were significant predictors of health were job pressure, namely security and job tension, and interpersonal rewards. Extrinsic rewards i.e. those factors relating to income and status were not significant predictors of health. Perceived social support tended to increase at the higher levels of occupational status and at the work place it appeared to exert a positive influence on health presumably by counteracting the adverse affects of job stress. This study stresses the need for industrial organizations of the emergent nations to initiate measures. which would enhance health status of workers as a cardinal factor in organizational growth.