Sense of coherence of reindeer herders and other Samis in comparison to other Swedish citizens

Figures & data

Table I Comparisons between Samis and non-Samis on sense-of-coherence with its 3 subscales

	n	Samis	Non-Samis	p
Sense-of-coherence (total)	601/525	71.0 (12.1)	70.0 (11.5)	0.177
Comprehensibility	601/525	26.5 (5.4)	25.8 (5.3)	0.027
Manageability	601/525	21.5 (4.3)	21.3 (3.9)	0.566
Meaningfulness	601/525	23.0 (4.1)	22.9 (3.9)	0.662

SOC=sense-of-coherence.

Table II Description of the study populations, Samis and non-Samis

	n	Samis	Non-Samis	p
Age, mean (SD)	609/525	49.9 (15.2)	48.0 (19.2)	0.068 (a)
Gender, female (%)	613/525	55.3	49.7	0.060 (b)
Country of birth, Sweden (%)	613/514	96.4	89.1	0.000 (b)
Married/co-habitating (%)	613/512	69.0	62.1	0.015 (b)
Education (%)	613/514			0.002 (b)
Less than 9 years compulsory education		9.1	16.0	0.574 (c)
Nine years compulsory education		10.2	8.2
At least 1 year additional vocational education		22.2	2.1
Secondary high school (at least 12 years of education)		24.1	49.6
Academic exam		34.4	24.1
Work status (%)	602/514			0.000 (b)
Have regular work		69.4	57.2
House wife/house man		0.5	0.8
Pensioner due to age		19.6	22.4
Pensioner due to sickness/disabled		5.1	2.7
Out of work		2.7	3.5
Studying		2.2	8.6
Else		0.5	4.9
Declares oneself as “healthy” (%)	605/514	67.3	75.9	0.002 (b)

Significance tested with (a) Student t-test for independent groups; (b) Chi-square; (c) Mann–Whitney U-test.

Table III Multivariate regressions on sense-of-coherence and its 3 subcomponents

Model	P for models	R^2	Independent variables	B	SE of B	Beta	P for independent variables
Sense-of-coherence (total)	0.000	0.16	Age	0.25	0.02	0.36	0.000
			Healthy	5.83	0.75	0.22	0.000
			Education	0.98	0.22	0.14	0.000
			Cohabitating	3.01	0.71	0.12	0.000
			Have regular work	1.69	0.77	0.07	0.029
Comprehensibility	0.000	0.13	Age	0.11	0.01	0.35	0.000
			Healthy	2.19	0.34	0.19	0.000
			Cohabitating	1.13	0.33	0.10	0.001
			Education	0.31	0.10	0.10	0.002
			Have regular work	0.70	0.36	0.06	0.048
Manageability	0.000	0.14	Age	0.08	0.01	0.34	0.000
			Healthy	1.94	0.26	0.21	0.000
			Cohabitating	1.09	0.25	0.13	0.000
			Education	0.23	0.08	0.09	0.002
			Have regular work	0.49	0.27	0.06	0.075
Meaningfulness	0.000	0.11	Age	0.06	0.01	0.26	0.000
			Healthy	1.67	0.26	0.19	0.000
			Education	0.44	0.08	0.18	0.000
			Cohabitating	0.80	0.25	0.09	0.001
			Have regular work	0.50	0.27	0.06	0.064

SOC=sense-of-coherence.

Optimal models after backward deletion with Sami ethnicity, age, gender, country of birth, cohabitating status, education, work and regarding oneself as “healthy” as initial predictor candidates (background factors).

Table IV Description of 2 Sami populations, reindeer herders (now or previously) and non-herders

	n	Herders (ever)	Non-herders	p
Age, mean (SD)	116/493	52.1 (16.8)	49.3 (14.8)	0.112 (a)
Gender, female (%)	118/495	38.1	59.4	0.000 (b)
Country of birth, Sweden (%)	118/495	94.9	96.8	0.331 (b)
Married/co-habitating (%)	118/495	70.3	68.7	0.727 (b)
Education (%)	117/490			0.000 (b, c)
Less than 9 years compulsory education		20.5	6.3
Nine years compulsory education		22.2	7.3
At least 1 year additional vocational education		12.8	24.5
Secondary high school (at least 12 years of education)		25.6	23.7
Academic exam		18.8	38.2
Currently in regular work (%)	118/495	65.3	68.9	0.446 (b)
Declare oneself as “healthy” (%)	117/488	62.4	68.4	0.210 (b)

Significance tested with (a) Student's t-test for independent groups; (b) Chi-square; (c) Mann–Whitney U-test.

Table V Comparisons between herders and non-herders on sense-of-coherence with its 3 subcomponents, importance of and threats to reindeer herding

	n	Herders	Non-herders	p
Sense-of-coherence (total)	114/487	68.4 (13.8)	71.6 (11.6)	0.022
Comprehensibility	114/487	25.7 (6.0)	26.7 (5.2)	0.066
Manageability	114/487	20.2 (4.9)	21.8 (4.0)	0.002
Meaningfulness	114/488	22.5 (4.4)	23.1 (4.0)	0.152
Importance of reindeer herding	115/485	8.0 (1.5)	7.1 (2.0)	0.000
Threats to reindeer herding	115/484	8.7 (2.0)	7.5 (2.2)	0.000

SOC=sense-of-coherence.

Significance by t-test for independent groups.

Table VI Multivariate regressions (backward deletion) on sense-of-coherence and its 3 subscales applied to the Sami population

Model	P for models	R^2	Independent variables	B	SE of B	Beta	P for independent variables
Sense-of-coherence (total)	0.000	0.17	Age	0.25	0.04	0.31	0.000
			Healthy	5.85	1.00	0.23	0.000
			Cohabitating	3.78	1.01	0.14	0.000
			Importance of reindeer herding	0.73	0.27	0.11	0.007
			Reindeer herder	−3.38	1.21	−0.11	0.006
			Threats to reindeer herding	−0.50	0.23	0.09	0.030
			Have regular work	2.29	1.17	0.09	0.050
Comprehensibility	0.000	0.13	Age	0.11	0.01	0.29	0.000
			Healthy	2.27	0.45	0.20	0.000
			Cohabitating	1.46	0.46	0.13	0.001
			Reindeer herder	−1.07	0.54	−0.08	0.046
Manageability	0.000	0.16	Age	0.09	0.01	0.33	0.000
			Healthy	1.76	0.35	0.19	0.000
			Reindeer herder	−1.43	0.43	−0.13	0.001
			Cohabitating	1.18	0.36	0.13	0.001
			Threats to reindeer herding	−0.19	0.08	−0.10	0.013
			Have regular work	0.91	0.41	0.10	0.026
Meaningfulness	0.000	0.12	Healthy	1.72	0.35	0.20	0.000
			Age	0.05	0.01	0.19	0.000
			Education	0.41	0.10	0.17	0.000
			Importance of reindeer herding	0.31	0.09	0.15	0.000
			Cohabitating	1.20	0.35	0.14	0.001

SOC=sense-of-coherence.