Racial Difference in the Relationship Between Health and Happiness in the United States

Figures & data

Table 1 Frequency of Participants Based on Year in the General Social Survey Overall and by Race

Year	All		Whites		Blacks
	n	%	n	%	n	%
1972	1601	3.8	1341	3.7	260	4.1
1973	1485	3.5	1304	3.6	181	2.8
1974	1472	3.5	1303	3.6	169	2.6
1975	1481	3.5	1318	3.7	163	2.5
1976	1489	3.5	1360	3.8	129	2.0
1977	1512	3.6	1336	3.7	176	2.8
1980	1451	3.4	1312	3.7	139	2.2
1982	1828	4.3	1322	3.7	506	7.9
1984	1388	3.3	1224	3.4	164	2.6
1985	1486	3.5	1336	3.7	150	2.3
1987	1725	4.1	1203	3.4	522	8.2
1988	926	2.2	796	2.2	130	2.0
1989	982	2.3	881	2.5	101	1.6
1990	869	2.1	772	2.2	97	1.5
1991	943	2.2	817	2.3	126	2.0
1993	1021	2.4	897	2.5	124	1.9
1994	1899	4.5	1638	4.6	261	4.1
1996	2278	5.4	1938	5.4	340	5.3
1998	2614	6.2	2218	6.2	396	6.2
2000	2145	5.1	1806	5.0	339	5.3
2002	869	2.1	746	2.1	123	1.9
2004	832	2.0	714	2.0	118	1.8
2006	1738	4.1	1466	4.1	272	4.3
2008	1223	2.9	1037	2.9	186	2.9
2010	1160	2.7	974	2.7	186	2.9
2012	1165	2.8	969	2.7	196	3.1
2014	1526	3.6	1256	3.5	270	4.2
2016	1698	4.0	1381	3.9	317	5.0
2018	1395	3.3	1137	3.2	258	4.0

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics in the Overall Sample and by Race

Characteristics	All		Whites		Blacks
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Race/ethnicity
White	35,802	84.8	35,802	100.0	–	–
Black	6399	15.2	–	–	6399	100.0
Gender
Men	18,694	44.3	16,223	45.3	2471	38.6
Women	23,507	55.7	19,579	54.7	3928	61.4
Employed
No	21,589	51.2	18,209	50.9	3380	52.8
Yes	20,612	48.8	17,593	49.1	3019	47.2
Marital Status*
No	19,486	46.2	15,305	42.7	4181	65.3
Yes	22,715	53.8	20,497	57.3	2218	34.7
Educational Attainment
0–11 years	25,756	61.0	20,770	58.0	4986	77.9
12 years	8615	20.4	7764	21.7	851	13.3
12–15 years	3088	7.3	2797	7.8	291	4.5
16+ years	4742	11.2	4471	12.5	271	4.2
Self-Rated Health*
Not healthy	10,483	24.8	8402	23.5	2081	32.5
Healthy	31,718	75.2	27,400	76.5	4318	67.5
Happiness*
Not happy	5493	13.0	4080	11.4	1413	22.1
Happy	36,708	87.0	31,722	88.6	4986	77.9
	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
Age (years)*	46.11	17.39	46.56	17.50	43.56	16.58

Note: *p < 0.05 for comparison of Blacks and Whites.

Table 3 Summary of Logistic Regressions on the Association Between Good Self-Rated Health and Happiness in the Pooled Sample

Characteristics	Model 1 Main Effects			Model 2 M1 + Interaction
	OR	95% CI	P	OR	95% CI	p
Race/ethnicity (Black)	0.62	0.58–0.67	<0.001	0.77	0.69–0.86	<0.001
Gender (women)	1.21	1.14–1.29	<0.001	1.21	1.14–1.29	<0.001
Age (years)	1.01	1.00–1.01	<0.001	1.01	1.00–1.01	<0.001
Married	2.55	2.39–2.71	<0.001	2.54	2.38–2.71	<0.001
Employed	1.35	1.26–1.44	<0.001	1.35	1.26–1.44	<0.001
Educational attainment			<0.001			<0.001
0–11 years	1.00			1.00
12 years	1.28	1.17–1.39	<0.001	1.27	1.17–1.38	<0.001
12–15 years	1.29	1.13–1.46	<0.001	1.28	1.12–1.45	<0.001
16+ Years	1.51	1.35–1.69	<0.001	1.49	1.33–1.67	<0.001
Time (year)	1.00	1.00–1.00	0.888	1.00	1.00–1.00	0.752
Self-rated health (healthy)	2.94	2.76–3.14	<0.001	3.22	3.00–3.46	<0.001
Self-rated health (Healthy) × black				0.68	0.59–0.79	<0.001
Constant	1.22		0.003	1.17		0.021

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

Table 4 Summary of Logistic Regressions on the Association Between Good Self-Rated Health and Happiness in Whites and Blacks

Characteristics	Model 3 Whites			Model 4 Blacks
	OR	95% CI	p	OR	95% CI	P
Gender (women)	1.22	1.14–1.31	<0.001	1.15	1.01–1.30	0.037
Age (years)	1.00	1.00–1.01	<0.001	1.02	1.01–1.02	<0.001
Married	2.70	2.51–2.90	<0.001	1.91	1.65–2.20	<0.001
Employed	1.31	1.21–1.41	<0.001	1.48	1.30–1.69	<0.001
Educational attainment			<0.001			0.002
0–11 years	1.00			1.00
12 years	1.26	1.15–1.38	<0.001	1.29	1.06–1.57	0.010
12–15 years	1.31	1.14–1.51	<0.001	1.08	0.80–1.47	0.602
16+ years	1.46	1.29–1.65	<0.001	1.75	1.22–2.53	0.002
Time (year)	1.00	1.00–1.00	0.801	1.00	1.00–1.01	0.273
Self-rated health (healthy)	3.18	2.95–3.42	<0.001	2.35	2.05–2.68	<0.001
Constant	1.30		0.001	0.61		<0.001

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.