Departament of Health Psychology, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Elche, Spain.
BMC Public Health. 2011 Jun 7;11:443. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-443.
Happiness has been associated with a range of favourable health outcomes through two pathways: its relationship with favourable biological responses to stress and with healthy lifestyles and prudent health behaviours. There are a substantial number of cross-cultural studies about happiness, but none of them has studied the association of happiness with perceived stress and health behaviours in Latin American samples. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association between general happiness and these variables in a Latin American sample.
We conducted a survey to examine the status of 3461 students aged between 17 and 24 years old (mean age = 19.89; SD = 1.73) who attended University of Santiago de Chile during 2009. The healthy behaviours indexes assessed were the frequency of daily physical exercise, fruits/vegetables intake, breakfast and lunch intake, smoking, alcohol and other drugs consumption. We also included the assessment of perceived stress and Body Mass Index. All of them were evaluated using a self-report questionnaire.
The univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses showed that being female and younger was related to a higher happiness, as well as that people self-reporting daily physical activity, having lunch and fruits and vegetables each day had a higher likelihood (OR between 1.33 and 1.40) of being classified as "very happy". Those who informed felt stressed in normal circumstances and during tests situations showed a lower likelihood (0.73 and 0.82, respectively) of being considered "very happy". Regarding drug consumption, taking tranquilizers under prescription was negative related to "subjective happiness" (OR = 0.62), whereas smoking was positive associated (OR = 1.20).
The findings of this study mainly support the relationship between happiness and health outcomes through the two pathways previously mentioned. They also underscore the importance of that some healthy behaviours and person's cognitive appraisal of stress are integrated into their lifestyle for college students. Additionally, highlight the importance of taking into account these variables in the design of strategies to promote health education in university setting.
幸福与一系列有利的健康结果有关，其通过两条途径产生影响：一条是与应对压力的有利生物学反应有关，另一条是与健康的生活方式和审慎的健康行为有关。有大量关于幸福的跨文化研究，但没有一项研究在拉丁美洲样本中研究幸福与感知压力和健康行为之间的关系。因此，本研究的目的是检验拉丁美洲样本中一般幸福与这些变量之间的关系。
我们进行了一项调查，调查了 2009 年期间在智利圣地亚哥大学就读的 3461 名 17 至 24 岁（平均年龄= 19.89；SD = 1.73）学生的状况。评估的健康行为指数包括每日体育锻炼的频率、水果/蔬菜摄入量、早餐和午餐摄入量、吸烟、饮酒和其他药物的使用情况。我们还包括了感知压力和体重指数的评估。所有这些都是通过自我报告问卷进行评估的。
单变量和多变量二元逻辑回归分析表明，女性和年轻是与更高的幸福感相关的因素，此外，人们每天报告进行体育活动、吃午餐和吃水果和蔬菜的人更有可能被归类为“非常幸福”（OR 在 1.33 到 1.40 之间）。那些报告在正常情况下和在考试情况下感到有压力的人更不可能被认为是“非常幸福”（分别为 0.73 和 0.82）。关于药物使用，根据处方服用镇静剂与“主观幸福感”呈负相关（OR=0.62），而吸烟则与之呈正相关（OR=1.20）。
本研究的结果主要支持了幸福与健康结果之间通过上述两条途径产生的关系。它们还强调了一些健康行为和个体对压力的认知评估被纳入大学生生活方式的重要性。此外，还强调了在设计大学环境中促进健康教育的策略时考虑这些变量的重要性。
