Impact of socioeconomic status and the big five personality traits on self-rated health among the Latvian population age 50+

Objectives. Health status is usually measured by objective factors such as the presence of chronic diseases, disabilities, or long-term illness. However, single-item measures such as Self-Rated Health (SRH) are found to be a better predictor of health than objective factors because SRH reflects a multifactorial construct with a wide range of influences. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the associated factors of SRH such as education level and employment status, demographic factors, and personality traits.
Materials and Methods. The analysis is based on Latvian data derived from The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Wave 8 (n = 781). The multinomial logistic regression model was used.
Results. A quarter (23.9%, n = 187) of the study participants rated their health condition as good, while half (51.7%, n = 404) of the respondents rated it as fair. Among all Big Five Personality Traits, the highest median score was observed for conscientiousness (4.0, IQR 3.5–4.5) and agreeableness (3.5, IQR 3.0–4.0). For the rest of the indicators (extraversion, neuroticism, openness), the median score was 3.0. In multivariate analysis (adjusted for all independent variables simultaneously), good SRH was significantly negatively associated with only one personality trait: neuroticism (odds ratio (OR) 0.47, p < 0.001). Among the other factors, younger age was associated with a good SRH (OR 25.9 (p < 0.001) and 5.7 (p < 0.001) for age groups 50–59 and 60–69 years, respectively, vs. 80+) as well as higher levels of education (OR 4.2 (p < 0.001) and 3.0 (p = 0.001) for the higher and vocational education, respectively, vs. without higher or vocational education. The absence of chronic conditions increased the odds of good SRH 41.6 times (p < 0.001). While unemployment (vs. retirement) decreased the odds by 95.2% (OR 0.048, p < 0.001).
Conclusions. Good SRH in the Latvian population aged 50 and older is associated with neuroticism in parallel with a variety of socioeconomic and demographic factors.