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Happiness and Health in Europe: A Multivariate Multilevel Model

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Abstract

Most studies of well-being use happiness or health as a single outcome. They either explain happiness in terms of health (and other factors) or conversely explain health in terms of happiness. Moreover, only a few studies include contextual explanations of well-being. This study investigates the individual, regional and national covariations in happiness and health. In doing so, we use multivariate multilevel model to explain happiness and health. We study 47 countries across Europe using the 2008 European Values Study. The problem of missing data has been solved using multilevel multiple imputation. We find that the determinants of both happiness and health are quite similar. At individual, regional and national levels, happiness and health are positively correlated. Being married, being educated, and being affluent are positively associated with being happy and being healthy. Conversely, individual unemployment and regional unemployment rates are negatively associated with happiness and health

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Acknowledgments

We would like thank to Directorate of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Indonesia for providing funding, the original creators of European Values Study for making the survey available for free. We would also like thank to Sujarwoto, Devi Femina and Citra Jaya, Asri Maharani, Wulung Hanandita, Paul Widdop and the anonymous reviewers for their help with writing this manuscript.

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  1. Institute for Social Change, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Adi Cilik Pierewan & Gindo Tampubolon

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  1. Adi Cilik Pierewan
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  2. Gindo Tampubolon
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Correspondence to Adi Cilik Pierewan.

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Pierewan, A.C., Tampubolon, G. Happiness and Health in Europe: A Multivariate Multilevel Model. Applied Research Quality Life 10, 237–252 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-014-9309-3

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