Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2025
Abstract
Objective
Using mixed methods, we investigated whether different sources of well-being were associated with better cardiovascular health.Methods
Data came from adults (55% women; 19% Black, 75% White) with biomarker data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study. At the second wave and in a refresher cohort, participants answered the question “What do you do to make your life go well?” Judges evaluated each response for the presence of 12 sources of well-being (e.g., positive relationships, faith, health maintenance). Participants were also assessed on 8 components of cardiovascular health at two waves, an average of 12 years apart. Concurrent (N = 2036) and longitudinal (N = 650) linear regressions examined the association between each well-being source in unadjusted models and models adjusted for sociodemographic factors and word count.Results
Adults who wrote about positive relationships, positive attitudes, enjoyment, coping, health maintenance, and planning tended to have better cardiovascular health in unadjusted models concurrently and longitudinally. In fully adjusted models, health maintenance (p < .001) and planning and organization (p = .004) were associated with better cardiovascular health concurrently. Additionally, health maintenance (p = .03) and work (p = .04) were associated with better cardiovascular health longitudinally.Conclusions
Individuals who endorsed maintaining their health as central to well-being showed healthier cardiovascular outcomes 12 years later. Combining qualitative assessments of sources of well-being with clinically assessed measures of cardiovascular health highlights unique contributors of well-being that are relevant for health and may not be evident with conventional self-report measures.Recommended Citation
Boehm, J. K., Adams, M., & Boylan, J. M. (2025). Sources of well-being and cardiovascular health: A mixed methods investigation from the MIDUS study. Social Science & Medicine, 371, 117903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117903
Copyright
Elsevier
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Health Psychology Commons, Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons
Comments
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Social Science & Medicine. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Social Science & Medicine, volume 371, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117903
The Creative Commons license below applies only to this version of the article.