Subjective health and ill health-related behaviour.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between self-rated health measures and ill healthrelated behaviour.


METHODS
The study design was based on a self-report questionnaire taken for three consecutive years.


METHODS
Path analysis was used to test the relations between (a) The Self-rated Health Scale (SRH) and the General Symptom Index (GSI) from the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), and (b) self-reports on sick leave, health care utilization and medication, in a group of 155 persons who had terminated psychotherapeutic treatment the year before our three-year panel survey. To investigate the potential moderating function of ongoing psychotherapeutic treatment, we repeated each test in a group of 152 patients in the midst of psychotherapeutic treatment.


RESULTS
Only weak or zero relations were found between the self-rated health measures and ill health-related behaviour. The multi-group analyses indicated between-group differences in model fit. The few significant specific between-group differences all concerned autoregressive relations.


CONCLUSIONS
Subjective health did not predict ill health-related behaviour. Ongoing psychotherapeutic treatment did not affect the predictive value of subjective health variables. The weak relations found in the current study illuminate paradoxical outcome differences between subjective well-being and ill health-related behaviour. Our findings are discussed in the light of cultural and personality factors.
Lazar
Anna
A
Stockholm County Council Institute of Psychotherapy, Stockholm, Sweden. Anna.Lazar@sll.se
Sandell
Rolf
R
Grant
Johan
J
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011613:Psychotherapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012803:Sick Role; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires