Life satisfaction and use of preventive health care services.
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Although a growing body of research shows that life satisfaction is linked with enhanced health behaviors and physical health, no study has examined life satisfaction's association with use of preventive health care services. From prior research the authors hypothesized that people with higher life satisfaction would be more proactive in taking care of their health, hence more likely to use preventive health care services. METHOD: Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the association between life satisfaction and preventive services. Participants were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study, a prospective and nationally representative panel study of adults (age >50). Participants' use of preventive services was collected over 2 years of follow-up. RESULTS: In models adjusting for sociodemographic factors, each standard deviation increase in life satisfaction was associated with a higher likelihood that people would obtain a cholesterol test. Further, women with higher life satisfaction were more likely to obtain a mammogram-x-ray or pap smear and also regularly check their breasts for lumps, whereas men were more likely to obtain a prostate exam. CONCLUSION: Higher life satisfaction was associated with higher use of several preventive services. A growing body of randomized controlled trials targeting life satisfaction has shown that levels of life satisfaction are modifiable. Thus, if these findings are replicated, life satisfaction may provide an important target for interventions aimed at enhancing preventive behaviors and health.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Individuals with better psychological health are more likely to engage in preventive screening, including for cardiovascular disease.
“Individuals with better psychological health are more likely to engage in preventive screening, including for CVD. 139,140”
From Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2021) · cites this paper as [139]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The satisfaction with life scale
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 · Cited by 31,768 · see citing works
Sin, N. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.20593 · Cited by 2,955 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Further, two recent meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, showed that various aspects of wellbeing (including life satisfaction) can be reliably and meaningfully enhanced, at least in young and midlife adults (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009).”
BackgroundPositive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies
Bolier, L., Haverman, M., Westerhof, G. J., Riper, H., Smit, F., & Bohlmeijer, E. (2013) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-119 · Cited by 1,996 · cited 4× · see citing works
“A recent meta-analysis found that nine out of twelve randomized controlled trials that targeted life satisfaction were able to successfully modify satisfaction levels (Bolier et al., 2013).”
BackgroundInfluentialBeyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being.
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.61.4.305 · Cited by 1,946 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Life satisfaction can and does change (Diener et al., 2006; Lucas & Donnellan, 2007).”
BackgroundStrine, T. W., Chapman, D. P., Balluz, L. S., Moriarty, D. G., & Mokdad, A. H. (2007) · Journal of Community Health · doi:10.1007/s10900-007-9066-4 · Cited by 496 · see citing works
Self-reports of health care utilization compared to provider records
Ritter, P. L., Stewart, A. L., Kaymaz, H., Sobel, D. S., Block, D. A., & Lorig, K. R. (2001) · Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(00)00261-4 · Cited by 401 · see citing works
How stable is happiness? Using the STARTS model to estimate the stability of life satisfaction
Lucas, R. E., & Donnellan, M. B. (2007) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2006.11.005 · Cited by 377 · see citing works
Xu, J., & ROBERTS, R. E. (2010) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0016767 · Cited by 304 · see citing works
Ogedegbe, G. O. (2012) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.1307 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Proyer, R. T., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., & Ruch, W. (2014) · Aging & Mental Health · doi:10.1080/13607863.2014.899978 · Cited by 198 · see citing works
Peterson, J. C. (2012) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.1311 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Reijneveld, S. A., & Stronks, K. (2001) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/30.6.1407 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
The Validity of Self-reported Physician Utilization Measures
Cleary, P. D., & Jette, A. M. (1984) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/00005650-198409000-00003 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Heart health when life is satisfying: evidence from the Whitehall II cohort study
Boehm, J. K., Peterson, C., Mika Kivimaki, B., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2011) · European Heart Journal · doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr203 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Self-citationLife Satisfaction and Frequency of Doctor Visits
Kim, E. S., Park, N., Sun, J. K., Smith, J., & Peterson, C. (2013) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000000024 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citationJenkins, K., & Ofstedal, M. B. (2008) · doi:10.7826/isr-um.06.585031.001.05.0015.2008 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Li, C., Ford, E. S., Zhao, G., & Mokdad, A. H. (2009) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2009.05.012 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Diener E Chan MY 2011 Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity Applied Psychology: Health and Weil-Being 3 1 43 10.1111/j.l758-0854.2010.01045.x · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Advances and Open Questions in the Science of Subjective Well-Being
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2018) · Collabra Psychology · doi:10.1525/collabra.115 · Cited by 1,149 · see citing works
Levine, G. N., Cohen, B. E., Commodore-Mensah, Y., Fleury, J., Huffman, J. C., Khalid, U., Labarthe, D. R., Lavretsky, H., Michos, E. D., Spatz, E. S., et al. (2021) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/cir.0000000000000947 · Cited by 865 · see citing works
Self-citationLife Satisfaction and Subsequent Physical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Health in Older Adults
Kim, E. S., Delaney, S., Tay, L., Chen, Y., Diener, E., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2021) · Milbank Quarterly · doi:10.1111/1468-0009.12497 · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Self-citationMaintaining Healthy Behavior: a Prospective Study of Psychological Well-Being and Physical Activity
Kim, E. S., Kubzansky, L. D., Soo, J., & Boehm, J. K. (2016) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s12160-016-9856-y · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Self-citationKim, E. S., Tkatch, R., Martin, D., MacLeod, S., Sandy, L. G., & Yeh, C. S. (2021) · Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine · doi:10.1177/23337214211002951 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Self-citationA qualitative study to examine older adults' perceptions of health: Keys to aging successfully
Tkatch, R., Musich, S. A., MacLeod, S., Kraemer, S., Hawkins, K., Wicker, E. R., & Armstrong, D. G. (2017) · Geriatric Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.gerinurse.2017.02.009 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Subjective Well‐Being and Health Behaviors in 2.5 Million Americans
Kushlev, K., Drummond, D. M., & Diener, E. (2020) · Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being · doi:10.1111/aphw.12178 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Smith, J. L., & Bryant, F. B. (2016) · The International Journal of Aging and Human Development · doi:10.1177/0091415016669146 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citationPositive Psychological Functioning and the Biology of Health
Kubzansky, L., Boehm, J. K., & Segerstrom, S. (2015) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12224 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Self-citationBoehm, J. K. (2021) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12599 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Slavinski, T., Bjelica, D., Pavlović, D., & Vukmirović, V. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13020497 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
If, Why, and When Subjective Well-Being Influences Health, and Future Needed ResearchPreprint
Diener, E. F. (2017) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/k6tvg · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Cadet, T. J., Burke, S. L., Bakk, L., Nedjat‐Haiem, F. R., & Schroepfer, T. A. (2020) · Journal of the National Medical Association · doi:10.1016/j.jnma.2020.09.145 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Do happy people care about society’s problems?
Kushlev, K., Drummond, D. M., Heintzelman, S. J., & Diener, E. (2019) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2019.1639797 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Social Risks and Nonadherence to Recommended Cancer Screening Among US Adults
Sedani, A. E., Gomez, S. L., Lawrence, W. R., Moore, J. X., Brandt, H. M., & Rogers, C. R. (2025) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.49556 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Seven reasons to invest in well-being.
Howell, K. H., Coffey, J. K., Fosco, G. M., Kracke, K., Nelson, S. K., Rothman, E. F., & Grych, J. H. (2016) · Psychology of Violence · doi:10.1037/vio0000019 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Hajek, A., & König, H. (2019) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-019-1389-3 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Yin and Yang of Psychological Health in the Cancer Experience: Does Positive Psychology Have a Role?
Amonoo, H. L., El-Jawahri, A., Deary, E. C., Traeger, L. N., Cutler, C. S., Antin, J. H., Huffman, J. C., & Lee, S. J. (2022) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.21.02507 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Hirooka, N., Kusano, T., Kinoshita, S., Aoyagi, R., Saito, K., & Nakamoto, H. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-11838-w · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Structural Sexism and Preventive Health Care Use in the United States
Dore, E. C., Shrivastava, S., & Homan, P. (2023) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.1177/00221465231194043 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Is Optimism a Protective Factor for Cardiovascular Disease?
Amonoo, H. L., Celano, C. M., Sadlonova, M., & Huffman, J. C. (2021) · Current Cardiology Reports · doi:10.1007/s11886-021-01590-4 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Marasinghe, K. M., Chaurasia, A. K., Adil, M., Liu, Q. Y., Nur, T. I., & Oremus, M. (2022) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-022-03557-8 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Maier, K., & Surżykiewicz, J. (2019) · Psychology of Religion and Spirituality · doi:10.1037/rel0000275 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Mularczyk-Tomczewska, P., Żarnowski, A., Gujski, M., Sytnik-Czetwertyński, J., Pańkowski, I., Smoliński, R., & Jankowski, M. (2022) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm11123423 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Yotsidi, V., Nikolatou, E. K., Κουρκούτας, Η., & Kougioumtzis, G. Α. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1171225 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Tuncay, F. Ö., & Fertelli, T. K. (2018) · Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi · doi:10.5505/deutfd.2018.82712 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Happiness is associated with successful living across cultures
Choi, H. P., Diener, E., Sim, J. H., & Oishi, S. (2022) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2022.2155221 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Development and Validation of a Real-Time Happiness Index Using Google Trends™
Greyling, T. M., & Rossouw, S. (2025) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-025-00881-9 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Kim, H., & Yang, H.-M. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18157784 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Association of Population Well-Being With Cardiovascular Outcomes
Spatz, E. S., Roy, B., Riley, C. L., Witters, D., & Herrin, J. S. (2023) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.21740 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Liu, Y., Lu, C., Chung, H., Wang, J., Su, W., & Chen, C. (2023) · European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing · doi:10.1093/eurjcn/zvad104 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Men’s transformative health service use: rethinking customer experience of vulnerability
McGraw, J., Russell‐Bennett, R., & White, K. M. (2024) · Journal of Services Marketing · doi:10.1108/jsm-06-2023-0220 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Li, Z., Li, D., & Li, Z. (2025) · Digital Health · doi:10.1177/20552076251374114 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Hajek, A., & König, H. (2022) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/29781 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Arafa, A., Kashima, R., & Kokubo, Y. (2023) · Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1265/ehpm.23-00125 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Lee, Y., Chang, Y., Shelley, M., & Liu, C. (2022) · Social Policy and Society · doi:10.1017/s1474746422000161 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Baek, S., & Yoon, J. (2024) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.108127 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Successful aging: an obscure but obvious construct
Pruchno, R. A. (2021) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-816094-7.00008-8 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Margaretha, C., Sarjana, W., Suharto, S., & Jusup, I. (2021) · Nurse Media Journal of Nursing · doi:10.14710/nmjn.v11i2.33500 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Economic Resources and Health: A Bi-Directional Cycle for Resilience in Old Age
Wong, R., DeGraff, D. S., & Orozco-Rocha, K. (2023) · Journal of Aging and Health · doi:10.1177/08982643231179873 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Malli, F., Gkena, N., Papamichali, D., Vlaikoudi, N., Papathanasiou, I. V., Fradelos, Ε. C., Papagiannis, D., Rouka, E. C., Raptis, D. G., Daniil, Z. D., et al. (2024) · Journal of Personalized Medicine · doi:10.3390/jpm14040393 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Ocsovszky, Z., Ehrenberger, B., Berényi, B., Assabiny, A., Otohal, J., Martos, T., Papp-Zipernovszky, O., Hegedus, F., Merkely, B., Csabai, M., et al. (2024) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1400849 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Din, H. M., Norhayati, M. N., Rasudin, N. S., Manoharan, A., & Ling, B. J. N. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106375 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Yang, W. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-97-3569-3_8 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Life Satisfaction and Influenza Vaccination Among Older Adults in Canada
Manneh, B., Andrew, M. K., & Okechukwu, C. E. (2022) · Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement · doi:10.1017/s0714980822000204 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Kuecuekbalaban, P., Schmidt, S., Beutel, M. E., Weidner, K., de Zwaan, M., Brähler, E., & Muehlan, H. (2017) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188653 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Abdouh, I. M., Aboalshamat, K. T., Alzhrani, A. M., Badri, H. M., Quronfulah, B. S., Mahmoud, M. A., Rajeh, M. T., & Badawoud, A. M. (2023) · Medical Science · doi:10.54905/disssi/v27i132/e112ms2824 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Hall, P., Wallace, B. C., & Adams, M. A. (2024) · Journal of Women & Aging · doi:10.1080/08952841.2024.2336652 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Guerra, M., Berglind, D., Kazemitabar, M., Lindskär, E., Schütz, E., Dias, C., & Garcia, D. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-72413-z · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Park, K. (2020) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/20453 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Negative Aging Self-stereotypes and Aging Perceptions beyond a Holistic Perspective
John, F., Athiramol, P. V., Ramalingam, K., & Kandasamy, K. (2024) · Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences · doi:10.4103/amhs.amhs_159_23 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
González, F. A. I., & Ramos, G. (2025) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2025.108324 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Sy, A. U., Kataoka‐Yahiro, M., Davis, J. W., Pirani, S., Kinoshita, Y., Harada, N., Kanaoka, M., & Miyazono, M. (2025) · Breast Cancer Basic and Clinical Research · doi:10.1177/11782234251392690 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Health service utilization among demented individuals with or without mood disorders in Canada
Ackerman, M. (2015) · e-scholar@UOIT (University of Ontario Institute of Technology)
Foggia, J., & Kuhlmann, A. S. (2017) · Journal of Refugee & Global Health · doi:10.18297/rgh/vol1/iss1/6/
Self-evaluation of behaviours related to the health of Polish young adults
Martyn, J., & Marć, M. (2020) · Family Medicine & Primary Care Review · doi:10.5114/fmpcr.2020.95320
Lam, C.-Y. (2022) · Journal of Research on Christian Education · doi:10.1080/10656219.2022.2146242
BANDLIK – AHOLI FAROVONLIGININIG MANBAYI
Zufarova, G. (2023) · Economics and education · doi:10.55439/eced/vol24_iss6/a12
Caballero, A., Fernández, I., Laforêt, B., & Carrera, P. (2024) · The Spanish Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1017/sjp.2024.6
Foggia, J., & Sebert Kuhlmann, A. (2017) · Journal of Refugee & Global Health · doi:10.18297/rgh/vol1/iss1/6
Personal Factors Impacting the Wellbeing of Students in Universities
Onyango, P. A., & Birech, J. K. (2024) · Advances in higher education and professional development book series · doi:10.4018/979-8-3693-8860-0.ch007
Vaccination Uptake, Happiness and Emotions: Using a Supervised Machine Learning Approach
Rossouw, S., & Greyling, T. M. (2024) · Human well-being research and policy making · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-56529-8_10
Marasinghe, K. M., Chaurasia, A. K., Adil, M., Liu, Q. Y., Nur, T. I., & Oremus, M. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.21622707
Marasinghe, K. M., Chaurasia, A. K., & Oremus, M. (2026) · Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology · doi:10.1080/17483107.2026.2626843
Detection of previously undiagnosed conditions in midlife preventive health examinations
Kalski, L., Hafermann, L., Caliman, T. J. P., Greiß, F., Karathanos, A., Pächter, C., Herrmann, C., & Wolfarth, B. (2026) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-026-53658-2
Sarkar, S., Zaidi, M., & Poghosyan, H. (2026) · Respiratory Medicine and Research · doi:10.1016/j.resmer.2026.101296
Zeng, H., Yu, C., Ouyang, Y., & Hu, M. (2026) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/95592
- Authors
- Kim, E. S., Kubzansky, L. D., & Smith, J.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kim, Eric S.
- Venue
- Health Psychology
- Published
- 2015-07
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 779-782
- ISSN
- 0278-6133 (ISSN-L)
- 1930-7810
- PMC
- PMC4442077
- OpenAlex
- W2327547491
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 4.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Health Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (U01AG009740)
- National Institutes of Health (AG040635)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health Promotion and Cardiovascular Prevention
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
- Keywords
- life satisfaction, preventive medicine, preventive health behavior, cholesterol determination, mammography, Pap smear, breast self-examination, prostate examination, older adults, gender differences, Health and Retirement Study
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Male, Mammography, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Preventive Health Services, Prospective Studies, Health Behavior
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
