Er heilsa metin með hlutfallslegum eða algildum hætti?

Abstract

Fyrri rannsóknir benda til þess að fólki sé minna umhugað um hlutfallslega stöðu heilsu heldur en hlutfallslega stöðu annarra gæða. Heilsa er hins vegar margvíð og aldrei áður hefur verið rannsakað hverjir hlutfallslegir eiginleikar mismunandi vídda heilsu eru. Send var spurningarkönnun á nemendur Háskóla Íslands þar sem svarendur voru látnir velja á milli tvenns konar samfélagsástands: í öðru bjuggu þeir við betri heilsu en aðrir í samfélaginu, en í hinu bjuggu allir við betri heilsu, en þar voru svarendur við lakari heilsu en aðrir. Kannað var með tilgátuprófum hvort ólíkar víddir heilsu væru í mismiklum mæli metnar út frá hlutfallslegri stöðu einstaklings miðað við aðra í samfélaginu. Þá var samband milli lýðfræðilegra- og heilsufarslegra breyta við afstöðu til hlutfallslegrar stöðu mismunandi vídda heilsu metið með logit aðhvarfsgreiningu. Niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar benda til þess að fæstir þættir heilsu hafa ólíka hlutfallslega eiginleika umfram aðra, en einungis líkamsþyngd og ungbarnadauði sýndu marktækt frábrugðna eiginleika. Þá virðist heilsa vera almennt talin mjög algild og kýs fólk síður hlutfallslega sterkari stöðu á kostnað algildrar heilsu.

Previous studies indicate that individuals care less about relative health status than relative status of other goods. Health, however, is a multidimensional desideratum and the relative characteristics of different dimensions of health have not been studied before. Respondents to a questionnaire had to choose between two different types of social situations: one, where their health was better than the rest of the society’s, and the other, where their health was better than in the previous situation, but everyone else’s health was even better than that, so that their relative standing was worse. Hypothesis tests were used to examine to what extent individuals care about different health dimensions based on their relative status compared to others in the society. The relationship between demographic and health status determinants, and the relative status regarding different dimensions of health was examined using logit regression analysis. The results indicate that few dimensions of health have different relative qualities over others, aside from body weight and infant mortality, which were statistically significantly different. In general, health seems to be considered in absolute terms and individuals do not choose relatively stronger health status at the expense of absolute health.