"I'LL DIE WITH THE HAMMER IN MY HAND": JOHN HENRYISM AS A PREDICTOR OF HAPPINESS.

This paper examines the association between John Henryism - a behavioral predisposition to cope actively with psychosocial environmental stressors - and happiness. On the basis of previous research on aspiration and goal regulation, we predicted that John Henryism would be negatively associated with happiness when controlling for demographic factors and attainment in various domains of life. We tested the prediction in a sample of hypertensive participants (n=758) drawn from an inner-city, mainly African-American, safety-net hospital in Jefferson County, Alabama. Bivariate analysis revealed no association between John Henryism and attainment in six domains of life: marriage, children, education, employment, income, and health. However, a significant negative association between John Henryism and happiness was found both in bivariate analysis (Spearman's ρ= -0.335; p<.001) and when controlling for demographic factors and attainment using ordinal logistic regression analysis. There was a significant interaction effect between John Henryism and gender: being male was positively associated with happiness among participants with low John Henryism, but negatively associated with happiness among participants with high John Henryism. While further study would be required in order to establish the extent to which these findings can be generalized as well as their causal underpinnings, the results indicate that John Henryism is negatively associated with happiness, especially among men, and underscore the limitations of using self-reported measures of happiness as proxies for well-being for purposes of public policy.

Health and happiness among older adults: a community-based study.

The relationship between health and happiness was explored using a cross-sectional survey of 383 community-dwelling older adults. As a function of self-reported health, median happiness was increasing at a decreasing rate; happiness variability was decreasing at a decreasing rate. In multivariable logistic regression, lowest-quartile happiness was associated with poverty, unfavorable subjective health, debilitating pain and urinary incontinence, but not with the comorbidity count or other comorbidities. The results, robust to common method bias, suggest that subjective health measures are better predictors of happiness than objective measures are, except for conditions that disrupt daily functioning or are associated with social stigma.

Effect of racial differences on ability to afford prescription medications.

PURPOSE: The association of race with not filling prescription medications because of cost for African-American and white patients 65 years or older was examined. METHODS: African-American and white patients age 65 years or older were recruited from the practices of 48 Alabama primary care physicians participating in the Alabama Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drug Patient Safety Study. All eligible patients were asked questions related to their ability to pay for prescription medications, comorbidities, insurance status, and socioeconomic status. Baseline and follow-up telephone surveys were completed between August 2005 and April 2006. Mediation analysis was conducted to determine whether patients' perceived income inadequacy mediated the association between race and not filling medications using staged logistic regression models and adjusting for age, comorbidities, and traditional markers of socioeconomic position (income, education, and insurance status). RESULTS: Of 399 participants, 32% were African-American, 74% were women, and 53% had an annual household income of <$15,000. Patients not filling prescription medications were more likely to be African-American (50% versus 25%) and to report inadequate income to meet basic needs (61% versus 17%) (p < 0.001 for both comparisons). After adjusting for all covariates except the mediator, the odds ratio (OR) for African Americans not filling a prescription medication was 2.3 when compared with white patients. Adding the mediator (perceived income inadequacy) to the model reduced the OR to 1.4. CONCLUSION: African Americans reported markedly greater difficulty in affording prescription medications than did white patients, even after accounting for income, education, health insurance status, and comorbidities. The inability of African Americans to afford prescription medications may be better predicted by perceived income inadequacy than more traditional measures of socioeconomic status.