%0 Journal Article
%T Self-esteem, stress and self-rated health in family planning clinic patients
%A James E Rohrer
%A Rodney Young
%J BMC Family Practice
%D 2004
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2296-5-11
%X This study investigated the relevance of different sources of personal stress and social support to self-rated health, adjusting for mental health, health behavior and demographic characteristics of subjects. Five hundred women who attended family planning clinics were surveyed and 345 completed the form for a response rate of 72 percent.Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that liking oneself was related to good self-rated health (Odds ratio = 7.11), but stress or support from children, parents, friends, churches or spouses were not significant. White non-Hispanic and non-white non-Hispanic respondents had lower odds of reporting good self-rated health than Hispanic respondents (odds ratios were 2.87 and 2.81, respectively). Exercising five or more days per week also was related to good self-rated health. Smoking 20 or more cigarettes per day, and obese III were negatively related to good self-rated health (odds ratios were .19 and .22, respectively with corresponding p-values equal to .0043 and .0332).Among younger low-income women, addressing low self-esteem might improve health status.Many variables influence self-rated health, including mental health, lifestyle (exercise, diet, smoking), psychosocial stressors (e.g., work strain and life stress) [1-6] depression, social supports [7], physical stressors (physical demands at work), pain, [8] coping skills, income and inequality [9,10], job insecurity [11,12], and housing quality [2]. The relative importance of these risk factors can be expected to differ from one population to another.The importance of lifestyle as a determinant of health status is supported by voluminous research reports [13,14]. Stress as a risk factor for poor health has been examined less frequently in population studies. Recent population-based research has demonstrated an association between living in an unsafe neighborhood and poor self-rated health, further supporting the theory that stress influences population health [14].Howe
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/5/11