The effect of life satisfaction on health care utilization in retirement age Americans: a latent transition analysis

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dc.contributorGunn, Heather
dc.contributorFeldman, Marc D.
dc.contributor.advisorHamilton, James C.
dc.contributor.authorKouchi, Kathryn
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2019-02-12T14:31:19Z
dc.date.available2019-02-12T14:31:19Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractRetirement is often celebrated as an important milestone in life. It is also a time when health concerns may increase as retirees enter the early stages of old age. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is evidence for distinct patterns of excessive health care use and life satisfaction in the immediate post-retirement period. The role theory of retirement states that individuals may experience psychological distress during the retirement transition due to the loss of a work identity (Wang, 2007). This psychological vacuum created by the loss of work identity may manifest itself as low life satisfaction. The vacuum may be filled by increased health care utilization among older adults post-retirement. While high life satisfaction has been linked to less health care utilization, there has been no systematic search for subgroups of retirees who show more health care use. (E.S. Kim, Park, Sun, Smith & Peterson, 2014; Gorry, 2015). The present study used a large longitudinal database of older adults, the Health and Retirement Study, to analyze membership in different life satisfaction and health care use trajectories from the pre- to post-retirement measurement waves. A latent transition analysis was utilized to identify classes of retirees that show differences in self-reported life satisfaction and health care use over time and found three distinct trajectories (low down-tick, moderate up-tick, high stable) of life satisfaction and four distinct trajectories (as distinguished by low, moderate, high levels of illness and HCU) of health care use. There was a significant, albeit weak association between one’s membership in a given life satisfaction trajectory and health care use trajectory.en_US
dc.format.extent47 p.
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0003189
dc.identifier.otherKouchi_alatus_0004M_13706
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/5372
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectPsychology
dc.titleThe effect of life satisfaction on health care utilization in retirement age Americans: a latent transition analysisen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Psychology
etdms.degree.disciplinePsychology
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.levelmaster's
etdms.degree.nameM.A.

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