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Life meaning: an important correlate of health in the hungarian population

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Abstract

One of the 5 coping scales in Rahe’s Brief Stress and Coping Inventory, entitled Life Meaning, was examined in relation to demographic characteristics, other coping measures, and health status in a sample of 12,640 Hungarian participants. Participants were selected to represent the country’s population according to sex, age, and place of residence. The study also explored the contribution of life meaning to the explanation of variations of middle-aged (45—64 years) male and female mortality rates across 150 subregions in Hungary. On an ecological level life meaning proved to be inversely related to male and female oncological, female cardiovascular, and total premature mortality rates in the 150 subregions of Hungary and on an individual level to participants’reported health status. In the total sample of individuals after controlling for gender, age, and education, life meaning scores showed strong correlations with the World Health Organization well-being scale, with self-rated absence of depression, with self-rated health, and with self-rated absence of disability. Although relatively unrelated to age, gender, and education, life meaning was positively related to self-efficacy, importance of religion, problem-oriented coping, and social support.

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Correspondence to Maria Kopp.

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The authors would like to thank Professor Gail Ironson and Professor Lynda Powell for their valuable advice and suggestions for the improvement of the manuscript; the other members of the “Hungarostudy 2002” team (Adrienne Stauder, Csilla Csoboth, Éva Susánszky, György Gyukits, János Lóke, Andrea Ódor, András Székely, and László Szúcs); the network of district nurses for the home interviews; Professor András Klinger for the sampling procedure; and especially to Katalin Hajdu, Csilla Raduch, and Noémi Somorjai for valuable assistance in the study. This study was supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project No. HUN/00/002/A/01/99, the National Research Fund (OTKA) projects No. T-32974 (2000), OTKA TS—40889 (2002), and T (2004) Scientific School grant, NKFP 1/002/2001 and NKFP 1b/020/2004.

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Skrabski, Á., Kopp, M., Rózsa, S. et al. Life meaning: an important correlate of health in the hungarian population. Int. J. Behav. Med. 12, 78–85 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1202_5

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