The Role of Modifiable, Self-Empowerment-Oriented Variables to Promote Health-Related Quality of Life Among Inadequately Insured Americans

• Published in: Journal of prevention (2022 : Print) 2022-02, Vol.43 (1), p.95-110
• Main Authors: Wippold, Guillermo M., Frary, Sarah Grace
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Community and Environmental Psychology; Coping; Empowerment; Female; Health disparities; Health Promotion; Health Psychology; Humans; Male; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Precision medicine; Public Health; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Self Efficacy; Surveys and Questionnaires; Uninsured people; United States - epidemiology; Well being
• ISSN: 2731-5533; 0278-095X; 2731-5541; 1573-6547
• DOI: 10.1007/s10935-021-00652-1

Inadequately insured Americans experience a disproportionately low health-related quality of life (HRQoL)–a multidimensional and subjective indicator of health associated with premature mortality. Although the inadequately insured are a growing and at-risk group of individuals, little research has examined factors associated with HRQoL within this population. Health Self-Empowerment Theory (HSET) and precision prevention influenced the conceptualization of this study. HSET is a health empowerment theory that recognizes the effects of certain cognitive-behavioral variables on health promotion within at-risk groups. Precision prevention advocates for individual or precise group-specific tailored and optimized health promotion approaches based on key sociodemographic variables. We investigated the impact of HSET variables on mental and physical HRQoL among 279 inadequately insured women and men who completed a questionnaire assessing HRQoL, health self-efficacy, health motivation, and active coping. Among the women in our sample, results indicate that exercise and psychological well-being self-efficacy were significantly and positively associated with mental and physical HRQoL. Among men, psychological well-being and responsible health practices self-efficacy, in addition to active coping, were significantly and positively associated with mental HRQoL. Psychological well-being self-efficacy and active coping were significantly and positively associated with physical HRQoL among men. The findings of our study suggest that HSET variables play an important role in the development of tailored HRQoL-promotion interventions for inadequately insured Americans, and that the roles of those variables may differ based on gender.