Peer effects in health valuation: the relation between rating of contemporaries’ health and own health

Abstract

According to this theory, elderly adults adopt to their situation by maintaining positive health perceptions when confronting illness; they adjust their perceptions of health in relation to peers of their age [14, 15], or to their past health [16, 17]. [...]we hypothesize that respondents, when reporting their own health state, incorporate concerns about others and coping effects, and, hence, that their VAS will be related to how they rate the health of contemporaries (Hypothesis 2). [...]according to this test, Hypothesis 1 is partly rejected; instead of a negative relation between age and VAS_OTHER-VAS_OWN, we observe an inverse U-shaped pattern. [...]relatively many older women have health problems. [...]a woman comparing her health to that of her peers of the same age is more likely to make the comparison with other women with health problems, other things being equal [1, 38].