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Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data

PURPOSE: Excellent character, reflected in adherence to high standards of moral behavior, has been argued to contribute to well-being. The study goes beyond this claim and provides insights into the role of strengths of moral character (SMC) for physical and mental health. METHODS: This study used l...

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Autores principales: Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota, Lee, Matthew T., Bialowolski, Piotr, Chen, Ying, VanderWeele, Tyler J., McNeely, Eileen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9344441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35916915
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5
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author Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota
Lee, Matthew T.
Bialowolski, Piotr
Chen, Ying
VanderWeele, Tyler J.
McNeely, Eileen
author_facet Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota
Lee, Matthew T.
Bialowolski, Piotr
Chen, Ying
VanderWeele, Tyler J.
McNeely, Eileen
author_sort Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Excellent character, reflected in adherence to high standards of moral behavior, has been argued to contribute to well-being. The study goes beyond this claim and provides insights into the role of strengths of moral character (SMC) for physical and mental health. METHODS: This study used longitudinal observational data merged with medical insurance claims data collected from 1209 working adults of a large services organization in the US. Self-reported physical and mental health as well as diagnostic information on depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease were used as outcomes. The prospective associations between SMC (7 indicators and a composite measure) and physical and mental health outcomes were examined using lagged linear and logistic regression models. A series of sensitivity analyses provided evidence for the robustness of results. RESULTS: The results suggest that persons who live their life according to high moral standards have substantially lower odds of depression (by 21–51%). The results were also indicative of positive associations between SMC and self-reports of mental health (β = 0.048–0.118) and physical health (β = 0.048–0.096). Weaker indications were found for a protective role of SMC in mitigating anxiety (OR = 0.797 for the indicator of delayed gratification) and cardiovascular disease (OR = 0.389 for the indicator of use of SMC for helping others). CONCLUSIONS: SMC may be considered relevant for population mental health and physical health. Public health policies promoting SMC are likely to receive positive reception from the general public because character is both malleable and aligned with the nearly universal human desire to become a better person. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5.
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spelling pubmed-93444412022-08-02 Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota Lee, Matthew T. Bialowolski, Piotr Chen, Ying VanderWeele, Tyler J. McNeely, Eileen Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol Original Paper PURPOSE: Excellent character, reflected in adherence to high standards of moral behavior, has been argued to contribute to well-being. The study goes beyond this claim and provides insights into the role of strengths of moral character (SMC) for physical and mental health. METHODS: This study used longitudinal observational data merged with medical insurance claims data collected from 1209 working adults of a large services organization in the US. Self-reported physical and mental health as well as diagnostic information on depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease were used as outcomes. The prospective associations between SMC (7 indicators and a composite measure) and physical and mental health outcomes were examined using lagged linear and logistic regression models. A series of sensitivity analyses provided evidence for the robustness of results. RESULTS: The results suggest that persons who live their life according to high moral standards have substantially lower odds of depression (by 21–51%). The results were also indicative of positive associations between SMC and self-reports of mental health (β = 0.048–0.118) and physical health (β = 0.048–0.096). Weaker indications were found for a protective role of SMC in mitigating anxiety (OR = 0.797 for the indicator of delayed gratification) and cardiovascular disease (OR = 0.389 for the indicator of use of SMC for helping others). CONCLUSIONS: SMC may be considered relevant for population mental health and physical health. Public health policies promoting SMC are likely to receive positive reception from the general public because character is both malleable and aligned with the nearly universal human desire to become a better person. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022-08-02 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9344441/ /pubmed/35916915 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Paper
Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota
Lee, Matthew T.
Bialowolski, Piotr
Chen, Ying
VanderWeele, Tyler J.
McNeely, Eileen
Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title_full Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title_fullStr Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title_full_unstemmed Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title_short Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
title_sort prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9344441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35916915
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5
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