ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2014
Life satisfaction and frequency of doctor visits.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Life satisfaction and blood pressure: A coordinated analysis of 16 cohorts.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of clinical guidelines for lipid lowering in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease events.Open heart · 2020Pooled it
- Towards sustainable mental health promotion: trial-based health-economic evaluation of a positive psychology intervention versus usual care.BMC psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Well-being as a primary endpoint in clinical trials: a call for consensus.Npj mental health research · 2026Review
- Social integration and long-term physical and psychosocial quality of life among prostate cancer survivors in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2026Article
- Aging, Economic Hardship, and Depression Among Ethnic Groups in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Is there a link between health care utilisation and subjective well-being? An exploratory study among older Danes.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025Article
- Is Frequency of Practice of Different Types of Physical Activity Associated with Health and a Healthy Lifestyle at Different Ages?European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
- Interdisciplinary approach to patients with psoriatic arthritis: a prospective, single-center cohort study.Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2024Article
- Mediation analysis of mental health characteristics linking social needs to life satisfaction among immigrants.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- The Effect of an Interdisciplinary Dermatological-Rheumatological Consultation on the Outcome of Patients with Psoriasis with Musculoskeletal Pain: A Prospective, Single-Center Cohort Study.Advances in therapy · 2023Article
- Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities.Royal Society open science · 2023Review
- Testing the added value of self-reported health and well-being in understanding healthcare utilization and costs.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2022Article
- The Determinants of Undiagnosed Hypertension among Urban Community of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Iranian journal of public health · 2022Article
- Is life satisfaction associated with future mental health service use? An observational population-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Observational
- Life Satisfaction Prevents Decline in Working Memory, Spatial Cognition, and Processing Speed: Latent Change Score Analyses Across 23 Years.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2022Article
- Effects of Septal Reduction Therapy on Acute Cardiovascular Events and All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.International heart journal · 2021Observational
- The association of health-related factors with quality of life among the elderly population in the Jaffna district of Sri Lanka.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Use of Clinical Preventive Service and Related Factors in Middle-Aged Postmenopausal Women in Korea.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Pathways, Contributors, and Correlates of Functional Limitation Across Specialties: Workshop Summary.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveIdentifying positive psychological factors that reduce health care use may lead to innovative efforts that help build a more sustainable and high-quality health care system. Prospective studies indicate that life satisfaction is associated with good health behaviors, enhanced health, and longer life, but little information about the association between life satisfaction and health care use is available. We tested whether higher life satisfaction was prospectively associated with fewer doctor visits. We also examined potential interactions between life satisfaction and health behaviors.
methodsParticipants were 6379 adults from the Health and Retirement Study, a prospective and nationally representative panel study of American adults older than 50 years. Participants were tracked for 4 years. We analyzed the data using a generalized linear model with a gamma distribution and log link.
resultsHigher life satisfaction was associated with fewer doctor visits. On a 6-point life satisfaction scale, each unit increase in life satisfaction was associated with an 11% decrease in doctor visits--after adjusting for sociodemographic factors (relative risk = 0.89, 95% confidence interval = 0.86-0.93). The most satisfied respondents (n = 1121; 17.58%) made 44% fewer doctor visits than did the least satisfied (n = 182; 2.85%). The association between higher life satisfaction and reduced doctor visits remained even after adjusting for baseline health and a wide range of sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health-related covariates (relative risk = 0.96, 95% confidence interval = 0.93-0.99).
conclusionsHigher life satisfaction is associated with fewer doctor visits, which may have important implications for reducing health care costs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.