title: Is the emotion-health connection a "first-world problem"?
abstract: Emotions have been shown to play a critical role in health outcomes, but research on this topic has been limited to studies in industrialized countries, which prevents broad generalizations. This study assessed whether emotion-health connections persist across various regions, including less-developed countries, where the degree to which people's fundamental needs are met might be a better predictor of physical well-being. Individuals from 142 countries (N = 150,048) were surveyed about their emotions, health, hunger, shelter, and threats to safety. Both positive and negative emotions exhibited unique, moderate effects on self-reported health, and together, they accounted for 46.1% of the variance. These associations were stronger than the relative impact of hunger, homelessness, and threats to safety and were not simply attributable to countries' gross domestic products (GDPs). Furthermore, connections between positive emotion and health were stronger in low-GDP countries than in high-GDP countries. Our findings suggest that emotion matters for health around the globe and may in fact be more critical in less-developed areas.
authors: Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. sarah.pressman@uci.edu
authors: Sarah D
authors: SD
authors: Pressman
authors: Matthew W
authors: MW
authors: Gallagher
authors: Shane J
authors: SJ
authors: Lopez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D059066:Gross Domestic Product; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult