Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Feb 18;10(2):e0117196.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117196. eCollection 2015.

Investigating the associations of self-rated health: heart rate variability is more strongly associated than inflammatory and other frequently used biomarkers in a cross sectional occupational sample

Marc N Jarczok  1 , Marcus E Kleber  1 , Julian Koenig  2 , Adrian Loerbroks  3 , Raphael M Herr  4 , Kristina Hoffmann  1 , Joachim E Fischer  1 , Yael Benyamini  5 , Julian F Thayer  6
Affiliations

Investigating the associations of self-rated health: heart rate variability is more strongly associated than inflammatory and other frequently used biomarkers in a cross sectional occupational sample

Marc N Jarczok et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the possible mechanisms linking a single-item measure of global self-rated health (SRH) with morbidity by comparing the association strengths between SRH with markers of autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, inflammation, blood glucose and blood lipids. Cross-sectional comprehensive health-check data of 3947 working adults (age 42±11) was used to calculate logistic regressions, partial correlations and compare correlation strength using Olkins Z. Adjusted logistic regression models showed a negative association between SRH (higher values indicating worse health) and measures of heart rate variability (HRV). Glycemic markers were positively associated with poor SRH. No adjusted association was found with inflammatory markers, BP or lipids. In both unadjusted and adjusted linear models Pearson's correlation strength was significantly higher between SRH with HRV measures compared to SRH with other biomarkers. This is the first study investigating the association of ANS function and SRH. We showed that a global measure of SRH is associated with HRV, and that all measures of ANS function were significantly more strongly associated with SRH than any other biomarker. The current study supports the hypothesis that the extent of brain-body communication, as indexed by HRV, is associated with self-rated health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: JEF was the major shareholder of HealthVision Ltd. until Dec. 2012, which organized the data collection. Since January 1st 2013 he now serves as a scientific consultant to Health Vision Ltd. All other authors declare no conflict of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean RMSSD and self-rated health (error bars 95% CI).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Forest plot showing unadjusted Odds Ratios (OR) of different biomarkers predicting poor self rated health: # Females / Males.
$ Age <20 / 20–<30 / 30–<40 / >40. Reading example: All else being equal the odds of indicating poor SRH for participants with HbA1c being larger 6.5% compared to participants with HbA1c below 6% is increased by the factor 6.14.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Forest plot showing adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) of different biomarkers predicting poor self rated health; # Females / Males.
$ Age <20 / 20–<30 / 30–<40 / >40. Adjusted for age, sport, alcohol, sleep quality, and work stress. Reading example: All else being equal the odds of indicating poor SRH for participants with HbA1c being larger 6.5% compared to participants with HbA1c below 6% is increased by the factor 3.13.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Benyamini Y, Idler EL (1999) Community Studies Reporting Association between Self-Rated Health and Mortality: Additional Studies, 1995 to 1998. Res Aging 21: 392–401. 10.1177/0164027599213002. - DOI
    1. Pinquart M (2001) Correlates of subjective health in older adults: A meta-analysis. Psychol Aging 16: 414–426. 10.1037//0882-7974.16.3.414 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schmidt B, Loerbroks A, Herr RM, Wilson MG, Jarczok MN, et al. (2014) Associations between supportive leadership and employees self-rated health in an occupational sample. Int J Behav Med 21: 750–756. 10.1007/s12529-013-9345-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. DeSalvo KB, Fisher WP, Tran K, Bloser N, Merrill W, et al. (2006) Assessing measurement properties of two single-item general health measures. Qual Life Res 15: 191–201. 10.1007/s11136-005-0887-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barger SD, Burke SM, Limbert MJ (2007) Do induced moods really influence health perceptions? Heal Psychol 26: 85–95. 10.1037/0278-6133.26.1.85. - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

The work was supported by internal funds of the Mannheim Institute of Public Health (Heidelberg University). The Director of this Institute JEF is co-author of the manuscript and as such played a role in preparation and approval of this manuscript. He had no role in study design, analysis and decision to publish the manuscript. Julian F. Thayer was supported by a Humboldt Senior Research Award. This funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

LinkOut - more resources