Abstract
General life satisfaction (GLS) is a strong health correlate and can be conceptualized as an aggregate of satisfactions in different life domains and as a proxy for quality of life. Little is known about which life domains—measured as domain satisfactions—contribute most to GLS and are the best predictors of self-rated health (SRH) and whether these associations differ between countries and/or language areas. We used stepwise logistic regression models to investigate how domain satisfactions, GLS and SRH are interrelated and compared German-speaking and French/Italian-speaking Switzerland with the corresponding neighboring countries of Germany, Austria, France and Italy. The associations of domain satisfactions with GLS and SRH varied significantly in magnitude and between countries and language areas. GLS was strongly related to self-rated health in all populations, but more so in the German-speaking than the French/Italian-speaking regions. Adjusted for all domain satisfactions, satisfaction with one’s financial situation and job satisfaction showed independent effects on SRH and were the most important predictors of GLS, although no clear geographical pattern emerged. Domain-specific satisfactions were similarly associated with GLS and SRH, but the strength of the association varied between German-, French- and Italian-speaking populations. Any similarity between Swiss language areas and neighboring countries was limited to German-speaking populations. Country- and language-specific life domain satisfactions may provide useful pointers for targeting policies in the respective domains.
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Acknowledgements
We thank EUROSTAT and the Swiss Federal Statistical Office for providing access to the individual data of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2013. The responsibility for all conclusions drawn from the data lies entirely with the authors. We are indebted to Julia Braun for statistical advice regarding interaction models.
Funding
This work is part of the project “Ageing, Work and Health” which was funded by an unconditional grant of the “Pfizer Stiftung für Geriatrie und Altersforschung”. The funding source had no role in the design and conduct of the study, analysis and interpretation of the data, preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Additional File 1
Missing responses and answer category “I don’t know” per variable of interest by country in 2013 (DOCX 57 kb)
Additional File 2
Percentage of respondents with low GLS and less than good SRH by country/language area in 2013 (DOCX 44 kb)
Additional File 3
Characteristics of study population by country and language area within Switzerland in 2013 Number of participants, percentage of participants reporting less than good SRH, means and standard deviation for continuous variables (DOCX 29 kb)
Additional File 4
Correlations between satisfaction measures and SRH by country/language area in 2013 (DOCX 157 kb)
Additional File 5
Associations between satisfaction measures and SRH. Logistic regression with interaction terms for job satisfaction and country, satisfaction with one’s financial situation and country as well as GLS and country in 2013 (DOCX 150 kb)
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Häusler, N., Hämmig, O. & Bopp, M. Which Life Domains Impact Most on Self-Rated Health? A Cross-Cultural Study of Switzerland and its Neighbors. Soc Indic Res 139, 787–802 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1731-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1731-0