Health and Subjective Well-Being – a Two-Way Relationship? Evidence from Three Central European Countries

Ladislav Rabusic , Masaryk University
Beatrice Chromková Manea, Masaryk University

Literature and meta-analyses of scientific texts (see for example Ngamaba, Panagioti and Armitage, 2017) provide evidence on the complex relationship between health and subjective well-being. Diner and his colleagues (2017) argue that there is still work to be done especially on the circumstances when subjective well-being (SWB) influences health status. According to them special attention should be paid to the interacting effects of other variables that can mediate the relationship between health and subjective well-being. The European Value Survey provides data allowing for answers to some important issues related to opinions and attitudes towards self-perceived health and well-being of the adult European population. The issue of well-being is investigated at the subjective level and refers to personal evaluation of life satisfaction and happiness in life. The main aim of this paper is two-folded: a) to assess the strength of the association between health status and subjective well-being across three countries in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria) and in a time perspective by use of individual data; and b) to test whether and how third variables (mediators) are responsible for the association between health and subjective well-being. The analysis will be run on data from the European Values Study conducted in 1991, 1999, 2008 and 2017. Our analysis will also include a time dimension as the trends in both self-perceived health and subjective well-being will be presented.

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 Presented in Session P2. Poster Session Ageing, Health and Mortality