IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v74y2012i10p1639-1643.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust, self-rated health and mortality: A longitudinal study among ageing people in Southern Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Nummela, Olli
  • Raivio, Risto
  • Uutela, Antti

Abstract

Poor self-rated health (SRH) predicts mortality significantly. High trust has been shown to associate with better SRH in cross-sectional studies and survival in longitudinal studies. However, little is known about the associations between trust, SRH and mortality among ageing people. The present study examined whether low trust at the baseline predicted higher all-cause mortality in a follow-up of over five years among ageing people, and whether the trust to mortality relationship varied by SRH. The study used longitudinal, questionnaire-based survey data gathered in 2002 (n = 2815; 66%) among three age cohorts (born in 1926–30, 1936–40 and 1946–50) living in the Lahti region, Southern Finland. Two survey follow-ups were done, the first in 2005 (n = 2476, 60%) and the second in 2008 (n = 2064, 73%). Deaths during the follow-up were obtained from the covering National Population Registry. Those who died within the first one year of follow-up were excluded from the analyses to reduce potential bias due to early deaths. Cox proportional hazard models were used to derive the results. Mortality proved to be higher among men with low trust, even if their SRH had been good at the baseline. Among women, no significant associations were found. The risk attenuated after adjustment for background health-related covariates, but the gradient remained statistically significant in all models. Initial SRH did not substantially explain the gradient of trust in mortality among men. Moreover, a Sobel test of indirect effects showed that SRH had no significant mediating role in links between trust and mortality. Thus, low trust is a sensitive indicator of higher mortality risk among ageing men.

Suggested Citation

  • Nummela, Olli & Raivio, Risto & Uutela, Antti, 2012. "Trust, self-rated health and mortality: A longitudinal study among ageing people in Southern Finland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(10), pages 1639-1643.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:10:p:1639-1643
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612001803
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giordano, Giuseppe N. & Lindstrom, Martin, 2010. "The impact of changes in different aspects of social capital and material conditions on self-rated health over time: A longitudinal cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 700-710, March.
    2. Stafford, M. & Cummins, S. & Macintyre, S. & Ellaway, A. & Marmot, M., 2005. "Gender differences in the associations between health and neighbourhood environment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1681-1692, April.
    3. Elgar, F.J., 2010. "Income inequality, trust, and population health in 33 countries," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(11), pages 2311-2315.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ying Liang, 2015. "Correlations Between Health-Related Quality of Life and Interpersonal Trust: Comparisons Between Two Generations of Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrants," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 677-700, September.
    2. Lee, Jaeyoung, 2020. "Mediating effect of sleep satisfaction on the relationship between stress and self-rated health among Korean adolescents: A nationwide cross-sectional study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Sato, Yukihiro & Aida, Jun & Tsuboya, Toru & Shirai, Kokoro & Koyama, Shihoko & Matsuyama, Yusuke & Kondo, Katsunori & Osaka, Ken, 2018. "Generalized and particularized trust for health between urban and rural residents in Japan: A cohort study from the JAGES project," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 43-53.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahnquist, Johanna & Wamala, Sarah P. & Lindstrom, Martin, 2012. "Social determinants of health – A question of social or economic capital? Interaction effects of socioeconomic factors on health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 930-939.
    2. Xindong Xue & W. Robert Reed, 2015. "The Relationship Between Social Capital And Health In China," Working Papers in Economics 15/05, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    3. Miething, Alexander & Mewes, Jan & Giordano, Giuseppe N., 2020. "Trust, happiness and mortality: Findings from a prospective US population-based survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    4. Elnaz Hajebi & Mohammad Javad Razmi, 2014. "Effect Of Income Inequality On Health Status In A Selection Of Middle And Low Income Countries," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 9(4), pages 133-152, December.
    5. Damiano Fiorillo & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera & Nunzia Nappo, 2020. "Individual Heterogeneity in the Association Between Social Participation and Self-rated Health: A Panel Study on BHPS," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 645-667, September.
    6. Ziliang Jin & Jiangping Wang & Xu Liu & Xu Han & Jiaojiao Qi & Jingyong Wang, 2022. "Stress Recovery Effects of Viewing Simulated Urban Parks: Landscape Types, Depressive Symptoms, and Gender Differences," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Colette Cunningham-Myrie & Katherine P Theall & Novie Younger-Coleman & Lisa-Gaye Greene & Parris Lyew-Ayee & Rainford Wilks, 2021. "Associations of neighborhood physical and crime environments with obesity-related outcomes in Jamaica," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "Differences in the effect of social capital on health status between workers and non-workers," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(4), pages 385-400, December.
    9. Sinha, Kompal & Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M. & Sharma, Anurag, 2021. "Do socioeconomic health gradients persist over time and beyond income? A distributional analysis using UK biomarker data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    10. Steffen Andreas Schüle & Gabriele Bolte, 2015. "Interactive and Independent Associations between the Socioeconomic and Objective Built Environment on the Neighbourhood Level and Individual Health: A Systematic Review of Multilevel Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-31, April.
    11. Lorenzo Rocco & Elena Fumagalli & Marc Suhrcke, 2014. "From Social Capital To Health – And Back," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 586-605, May.
    12. Stephanie A. Prince & Elizabeth A. Kristjansson & Katherine Russell & Jean-Michel Billette & Michael Sawada & Amira Ali & Mark S. Tremblay & Denis Prud’homme, 2011. "A Multilevel Analysis of Neighbourhood Built and Social Environments and Adult Self-Reported Physical Activity and Body Mass Index in Ottawa, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-26, October.
    13. Halleröd, Björn & Gustafsson, Jan-Eric, 2011. "A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between changes in socio-economic status and changes in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 116-123, January.
    14. Luo, Weixiang & Xie, Yu, 2020. "Economic growth, income inequality and life expectancy in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    15. Tian Gao & Rui Song & Ling Zhu & Ling Qiu, 2019. "What Characteristics of Urban Green Spaces and Recreational Activities Do Self-Reported Stressed Individuals Like? A Case Study of Baoji, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-16, April.
    16. Layte, Richard & Whelan, Christopher T., 2014. "Who Feels Inferior? A Test of the Status Anxiety Hypothesis of Social Inequalities in Health," Papers WP476, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    17. Sundar Ponnusamy & Mohammad Abbas Hakeem, 2024. "Ethnic inequality and public health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 41-58, January.
    18. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2015. "Structural social capital and health in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 129-142.
    19. Salomon, Katja, 2020. "Dynamics of immigrant resentment in Europe," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2020-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Damiano Fiorillo, 2016. "Workers’ health and social relations in Italy," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(5), pages 835-862, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:10:p:1639-1643. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.