© 1996 by European Journal of Public Health
ORIGINAL ARTICLES |
Sense of coherence, socioeconomic conditions and health
Interrelationships in a nation-wide Swedish sample
GERRY LARSSON and KJELL O. KALLENBERG
The Centra for Public Health Research Karistad, Sweden
Örebro Medical Center Hospital Örebro, Sweden
Correspondence: Gerry Larsson, professor, PhD, The Centre for Public Health Research, The County Council of Värmland, P.O Box 9104, S-650 09 Karistad, Sweden, tel. +46 54 885522 fax +46 54 885523
This study explores the distribution of sense of coherence (SOC) in common demographic and socioeconomic subgroups in a nation-wide representative sample. It also explores the relationship between SOC and these conditions, on the one hand and self-reported indicators of health, on the other. The sample consisted of 2,003 Swedes; 976 men and 1,027 women. The mean age was 44.2 years (SD = 16.6 years). The sample was selected by SIFO, the biggest Swedish market research institute, to be representative of the Swedish population between the ages of 15 and 75 years. All participants responded to a mailed questionnaire including Antonovsky's short SOC questionnaire, common socioeconomic and sodal situation variables and health questions. The distribution of SOC scores in different subgroups was partly inconsistent with previous studies. A sex difference was found; men scored significantly higher on the SOC scale than women. Regarding age, SOC scores increased with increasing age. Bivariate statistics showed that SOC was more strongly related to general well-being and psychological symptoms than to overall physical health and somatic symptoms. SOC was also more strongly related to health among women than men. Multivariate statistics (separately for men and women) indicated that SOC was more strongly related to the health indicators than age, education and income levels, number of persons in the household and number of friends. The possibility of a conceptual overlap between SOC and self-assessments of health, well-being and psychological symptoms in particular is discussed.
Keywords: nation-wide sample, self-reported health, sense of coherence, socioeconomic conditions
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