TY - JOUR
T1 - What do time-use patterns tell us about the validity of self-reported health?
AU - Faytong-Haro, Marco
AU - Santos-Lozada, Alexis R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Ms. Effie Smith-Palacios for her suggestions to an earlier version of this manuscript. Alexis R. Santos is a co-funded faculty of the Social Disparities Cluster at the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at the Pennsylvania State University. The authors received support from the Population Research Institute (P2CHD041025) at the Pennsylvania State University. The authors thank Dr. Jonathan K. Daw, faculty-lead at the Population-Health Working Group at PRI for his suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Objective: This short communication investigates the usefulness of time-use measures to validate subjective health measures such as self-reported health (SRH). It does this by examining time-use patterns and SRH among middle-age adults in the United States distinguished by race/ethnicity and with additional attention to differences in responses based on language of interview for Hispanics. Methods: Data for this study come from the 2013–2016 American Time Use Survey. We calculated average time-use for personal care; housework; paid work; leisure; volunteering/travel; caregiving; and education for every racial/ethnic group differentiating by SRH for 27,063 adults aged 25–64 years. A series of ANOVAs were computed to assess differences in time-use by SRH. Results: Non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks who reported poor/fair SRH spent more time in personal care and leisure, and less time in paid work, volunteering/travel, caregiving and education, in comparison to those who reported Excellent/Very Good/Good SRH. Among Hispanics, differences by SRH were found for personal care, paid work, leisure and volunteering/travel. Hispanics who answered in English displayed partially similar patterns in SRH found for non-Hispanic whites and Blacks. Hispanics who answered in Spanish demonstrated differences in SRH in the areas of paid work, leisure and education, diverging from the other groups. Conclusions: Time-use differences by health status are consistent between non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, but not so for Hispanics. To some extent, Hispanics who answered in English have more comparable patterns to non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks than Spanish respondents. Caution should be exercised when self-reported health measures are used to compare diverse samples collected with surveys that are administered in different languages.
AB - Objective: This short communication investigates the usefulness of time-use measures to validate subjective health measures such as self-reported health (SRH). It does this by examining time-use patterns and SRH among middle-age adults in the United States distinguished by race/ethnicity and with additional attention to differences in responses based on language of interview for Hispanics. Methods: Data for this study come from the 2013–2016 American Time Use Survey. We calculated average time-use for personal care; housework; paid work; leisure; volunteering/travel; caregiving; and education for every racial/ethnic group differentiating by SRH for 27,063 adults aged 25–64 years. A series of ANOVAs were computed to assess differences in time-use by SRH. Results: Non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks who reported poor/fair SRH spent more time in personal care and leisure, and less time in paid work, volunteering/travel, caregiving and education, in comparison to those who reported Excellent/Very Good/Good SRH. Among Hispanics, differences by SRH were found for personal care, paid work, leisure and volunteering/travel. Hispanics who answered in English displayed partially similar patterns in SRH found for non-Hispanic whites and Blacks. Hispanics who answered in Spanish demonstrated differences in SRH in the areas of paid work, leisure and education, diverging from the other groups. Conclusions: Time-use differences by health status are consistent between non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, but not so for Hispanics. To some extent, Hispanics who answered in English have more comparable patterns to non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks than Spanish respondents. Caution should be exercised when self-reported health measures are used to compare diverse samples collected with surveys that are administered in different languages.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111244173&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85111244173&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100882
DO - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100882
M3 - Article
C2 - 34381867
AN - SCOPUS:85111244173
VL - 15
JO - SSM - Population Health
JF - SSM - Population Health
SN - 2352-8273
M1 - 100882
ER -