Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index: Linking Health and Happiness
A newly released research report puts some hard numbers on how health is related to happiness in America.
My last post summarizing the happenings at WHCC put a lot of focus on discussing the connection between health and happiness, highlighting specific ways to achieve it and providing a few implementation examples.
In the meantime, a partnership between Gallup and Healthways, called Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released a study looking at health / happiness connection in America. The project's site makes it clear why the data is notable:
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a unique partnership in research and care, began in January 2008, and surveys 1,000 Americans every day. The research and methodology underlying the Well-Being Index is based on the World Health Organization definition of health as “not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being.”
The attraction of the survey is in its simplicity: respondents are asked to put themselves on a "well-being ladder" of 10 steps (see detailed methodology), clearly identified with their self-perception of well-being summarized in this table:
| Steps | Label | % | Common Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-10 | Thriving | 49 | Have higher incomes, more education and less illness |
| 4-6 | Struggling | 47 | Financial security worries dominate as the top reason for unhappiness |
| 1-3 | Suffering | 4 | Trouble meeting their basic needs, such as food, shelter and medical care |
The study is remarkable for connecting health not only with happiness / well-being but also financial factors. Daniel Kahneman, the 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics is quoted on the importance of the research:
There's never been anything quite like it. You're getting details about what it's like to live in this country. What is the experience of the weekend? What is the experience of the weekday for someone who is sick and has to go to work in the morning? We are going to learn a great deal about what are the determinants of actual happiness.
In general, we find that misfortunes tend to reinforce each other. In addition to physical pain, illness also increases feelings of stress, sadness and worries about money, and lowers energy. These consequences of illness are buffered or mitigated to some extent by the availability of health insurance, by higher income, by being married and by social contact with others. We are discovering that different aspects of life determine people's judgments and their emotions, and we expect this survey to provide a much richer picture of the feelings of the American citizenry than has ever been available.
The study provides the data proving that any viable healthcare reform proposal must connect health with happiness and financial means. Money in the end drives behaviors more than anything else.
What do you think about these research results?
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