Trial Report Determinants of life dissatisfaction among adults in the US: A cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Interview Survey, 2023, Miller

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Determinants of life dissatisfaction among adults in the United States: A cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Interview Survey

Miller, Anna L.a; Bhattacharyya, Mehula; Bhattacharyya, Ruemonb; Frankhauser, Frederick JD, MBAc; Miller, Larry E. PhD, PStata,*

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Medicine 102(32) : p e34488, August 11, 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000034488

• OPEN

Abstract

The number of Americans who report dissatisfaction with their quality of life has increased over the past several decades.

This study investigated social- and health-related determinants of life dissatisfaction among adults in the United States (US). We conducted a cross-sectional observational study using data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample of adults in the US.

We analyzed the association between self-reported life dissatisfaction and independent variables including demographics, family-level information, health status and conditions, functioning and disability, health insurance coverage, chronic pain, occupational variables, socioeconomic indicators, health-related behaviors, and psychological distress indicators.

Survey multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the association among social- and health-related determinants and life dissatisfaction.

relative importance of each variable in the final model was determined using Shapley Additive Explanations values (0–100% scale).

Among the 253.2 million civilian noninstitutionalized adults, 12.2 million (4.8%) reported life dissatisfaction.

Recent psychological distress, unmarried status, poor general health, lack of social/emotional support, and lower food security were independently associated with life dissatisfaction (all P < .001).

The relative importance of these variables in predicting life dissatisfaction was 39.3% for recent psychological distress, 22.2% for unmarried status, 18.3% for poor general health, 13.4% for lack of social/emotional support, and 6.9% for lower food security.

Additionally, racial inequities were identified in the prevalence of these factors.

Life dissatisfaction among adults in the US is associated with social- and health-related factors that are more prevalent in racial minority groups.

The study findings suggest that resource prioritization should be targeted towards individuals with these factors, with particular emphasis on racial minority groups.

This study aligns with US health policy initiatives and the results may help policymakers address the underlying factors contributing to life dissatisfaction among the US population.
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Perhaps poor, sick Americans have realised they will never reach their vision of the American Dream.

 

Those two are very dependent of one another, though. Very much. Especially in the US.

And the latter is a subset of the former. I'm not sure it's as low as 21%, though. I guess it shows some damn strong resilience in there, but there's always a relative scale applied here, when you can't even remember what it was like to be healthy.

One day, medicine will actually understand that illness is bad and that you can't just ram some cheap quackery onto everything not a "disease" found in some books. Maybe. Or maybe AIs will teach them, and constantly remind them. That's probably more likely to happen.