IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i23p8869-d453097.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Association of Post-Materialism with Health Care Use. Findings of a General Population Survey in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • André Hajek

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Hans-Helmut König

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

(1) The aim of this study was to identify the association between post-materialism and health care use (in terms of the frequency of doctor visits and the reason for doctor visits). (2) Data were taken from the German General Social Survey (a representative sample of individuals aged 18 years and over, n = 3338). The Inglehart’s post-materialist index was used to quantify post-materialism. The doctor visits (self-reported) in the past three months served as an outcome measure. The reasons for seeing a doctor served as an additional outcome measure (acute illness; chronic illness; feeling unwell; requesting advice; visit to the doctor’s office without consulting the doctor (e.g., need to get a prescription); preventive medical check-up/vaccination). (3) After adjusting for several covariates, negative binomial regressions revealed that compared with materialism, post-materialism was associated with decreased doctor visits (total sample; women). Moreover, the likelihood of visiting the doctor for reasons of chronic illnesses was lower in post-materialistic women, whereas the likelihood of visiting the doctor for reasons of preventive medical check-up/vaccination was higher in post-materialistic women. (4) Study findings identify an unexplored link between post-materialism and doctor visits in women. One may conclude that in the long-term, the increased likelihood of preventive medical check-ups in post-materialistic women will be beneficial in decreasing the need for doctor visits for reasons of chronic illnesses. However, future research is required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • André Hajek & Hans-Helmut König, 2020. "The Association of Post-Materialism with Health Care Use. Findings of a General Population Survey in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-11, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8869-:d:453097
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8869/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8869/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2013. "Regression Analysis of Count Data," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107667273, September.
    2. André Hajek & Jens-Oliver Bock & Hans-Helmut König, 2017. "The role of personality in health care use: Results of a population-based longitudinal study in Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Inglehart, Ronald & Abramson, Paul R., 1999. "Measuring Postmaterialism," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 93(3), pages 665-677, September.
    4. Inglehart, Ronald, 1971. "The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 991-1017, December.
    5. Alan D. Lopez & Colin D. Mathers & Majid Ezzati & Dean T. Jamison & Christopher J. L. Murray, 2006. "Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7039.
    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. Pietro Ferrara & Luciana Albano, 2022. "Advances in Population-Based Healthcare Research: From Measures to Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-4, October.

    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. Bruce Tranter, 2015. "The Impact of Political Context on the Measurement of Postmaterial Values," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(2), pages 21582440155, June.
    2. Nicolae-Bogdan IANC & Thierry BAUDASSE, 2021. "How can culture affect taxation? A postmaterialism value approach," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2848, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    3. Nicolae-Bogdan Ianc & Thierry Baudassé, 2021. "How Can Culture Affect Taxation? A Postmaterialism Value Approach," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(3), pages 466-488, September.
    4. Helmuth Ramos Calonge & Carlos Fernando Agudelo Rodríguez, 2016. "Calidad de la vivienda informal: aportes desde la proyección social universitaria," Revista Equidad y Desarrollo, Universidad de la Salle, issue 25, pages 29-52, January.
    5. Elyakim Kislev, 2018. "Happiness, Post-materialist Values, and the Unmarried," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(8), pages 2243-2265, December.
    6. Mark D. Promislo & Robert A. Giacalone & John R. Deckop, 2017. "Assessing Three Models of Materialism–Postmaterialism and Their Relationship with Well-Being: A Theoretical Extension," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 531-541, July.
    7. Tobias König & Andreas Wagener, 2012. "Culture and Tax Structures," CESifo Working Paper Series 3748, CESifo.
    8. Antonio Segura Sánchez & Jesús Gil Roales-Nieto, 2016. "Diferencias intergeneracionales en satisfacción y felicidad percibidas, relacionadas con la prosperidad material," Revista Equidad y Desarrollo, Universidad de la Salle, issue 25, pages 11-28, January.
    9. Wang, Xu & Zhang, Xiaobo & Xie, Zhuan & Huang, Yiping, 2016. "Roads to innovation: Firm-level evidence from China:," IFPRI discussion papers 1542, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Preusse, Verena & Wollni, Meike, 2021. "Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in the context of urbanisation and environmental stress – Evidence from farmers in the rural-urban interface of Bangalore, India," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 312690, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Luiz Paulo Fávero & Joseph F. Hair & Rafael de Freitas Souza & Matheus Albergaria & Talles V. Brugni, 2021. "Zero-Inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Models: A Better Way to Understand Data Relationships," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-28, May.
    12. Veenhoven, Ruut, 1990. "Inequality in happiness: inequality in countries compared across countries," MPRA Paper 11275, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Bono, Pierre-Henri & David, Quentin & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Py, Loriane, 2022. "Metro infrastructure and metropolitan attractiveness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Scott, Ryan P. & Scott, Tyler A., 2019. "Investing in collaboration for safety: Assessing grants to states for oil and gas distribution pipeline safety program enhancement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 332-345.
    15. Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti & Luca Pedini, 2020. "ParMA: Parallelised Bayesian Model Averaging for Generalised Linear Models," Working Papers 2020:28, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    16. Ali, Maged & Azab, Nahed & Sorour, M. Karim & Dora, Manoj, 2019. "Integration v. polarisation among social media users: Perspectives through social capital theory on the recent Egyptian political landscape," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 461-473.
    17. Tsung-Ming Tsao & Jing-Shiang Hwang & Sung-Tsun Lin & Charlene Wu & Ming-Jer Tsai & Ta-Chen Su, 2022. "Forest Bathing Is Better than Walking in Urban Park: Comparison of Cardiac and Vascular Function between Urban and Forest Parks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    18. Anderson, Soren T. & Laxminarayan, Ramanan & Salant, Stephen W., 2012. "Diversify or focus? Spending to combat infectious diseases when budgets are tight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 658-675.
    19. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    20. Michael Grimm & Carole Treibich, 2013. "Why Do Some Bikers Wear a Helmet and Others Don't? Evidence from Delhi, India," AMSE Working Papers 1348, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised 10 Oct 2013.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8869-:d:453097. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.