The relationships between physical and psychologial health in midlife woman

Abstract

The main target of this survey is to analyze the relation between the indicators of physical and psychological health in middle-aged women/female compared to other groups (young women/female, young men/male and middle-aged men/male). Besides, we specifically intend to verify: a) which the psychological variables that predict physical health are, depending on objective or subjective indicators; b) whether among middle-aged women, demographic variables (socio-economical level, marital status, children and working conditions) have an influence on health indicators. The survey has been carried out with 500 participants, aged 27-65, as a representative sample of the Community of Madrid (Spain). The instruments we have used to measure the variables are: Situations and Responses to Anxiety Inventory (ISRA), Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale (RES), Self-perception of Satisfaction Questionnaire and some Questionnaires of Physical Health Assessment (two objective indicators and two perceived health indicators). The results show that middle-aged women are less healthy than young women, young men and middle-aged men, obtaining a higher score in Visits to the Doctor’s, Chronicle Diseases, Physical Illnesses, Physiological Anxiety, Cognitive Anxiety and lower scores in Perceived Physical Health and Self-esteem; the only demographic variables that have influence on their health are working conditions and the fact of having or not a sentimental couple. The psychological variables that have been used in this survey can only explain the variance of the subjective physical health indicators (physical illnesses and perceived physical health), most of all, the physiological anxiety, which is responsible for the highest percentage of explained variance. The psychological variables predict physical health in women more than in men, what seems to indicate that physical health in women is closely related to psychological health. Future surveys should consider some other psychological variables (personality, stress, depression) in order to find out whether other variables can explain different parts of the variance in physical health. The results we have found so far and the ones to come will be helpful in order to design more efficient programs of psychological intervention within the health area.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v19i1/2.400