Gender-Specific Relationship Between Executive Function and Self-Rated Health

OBJECTIVES: Self-rated health is a comprehensive measure of health. As gender difference in self-rated health is found, identifying gender-specific factors related to self-rated health is important. Poor executive functioning negatively affects an individual’s independence and healthy lifestyle, but it is unknown relationships between executive function and self-rated health and gender differences in these relationships. Therefore, gender differences were examined in the relationship between executive function and self-rated health in the community. METHODS: Individuals completed questionnaires about their health status and subjective decline in executive function. Neuropsychological tests were also performed to assess objective executive functioning. Two separate multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted by gender. RESULTS: Better objective executive function was related to greater self-rated health scores (better self-rated health) in men alone (βs = 0.341), while better subjective executive function was significantly associated with greater self-rated health scores in both men and women (βs = 0.385 and 0.443, respectively). CONCLUSION: Gender differences are important when reporting perceived health status, in particular the different effects of subjective and objective executive function on self-rated health across genders. Clinicians need to be aware of the potential value of subjective executive function complaints when evaluating health status.