Self-confidence is what we strive for. Having that good self-esteem helps you maintain a positive outlook, alleviates anxiety, and allows you to move through life fearlessly. But new research has found that a good sense of self-confidence could negatively impact your health when you’re older.
How’s that? The research found that older adults who overestimate their health visit their doctors less often, reports sciencedaily.com. Fewer doctor visits could lead to serious ramifications. Consider, for one, that your doctor won’t have the opportunity to identify symptoms and illnesses that could develop.
The study, conducted by the Institute for Demography at the University of Vienna and the Hertie School in Berlin, focused on data from more than 80,000 European adults aged 50-plus. The data also revealed that adults who have the tendency to think they are sicker than they are see their doctors more often (21 percent more often).
Published in The Journal of the Economics of Aging, the study found that our perception of our health impacts not only how often to see a doctor but health decisions as a whole. Interestingly, one’s self-perception of one’s health did not have an effect on the how often one had a hospital stay, nor on the duration of those stays. This is likely due to hospital stays being more regulated, reports sciencedaily.com; hospital stays also often require a doctor’s referral.
For more on how the research was conducted and insight into its findings, read the sciencedaily.com article here.
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