THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SELF-REPORTED HEALTH STATUS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SELF-REPORTED HEALTH STATUS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: This study adds to the research on the population perception on health status in relation to different socio-economic and health behavior factors, with a special focus on physical activity effects, which are still understudied in Romanian population, despite their potential long‐term implications. The data was retrieved from the second wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) 2014. In methodological terms, our study relies on an assessment physical activity index which includes the participation frequency and activity duration in walking, riding a bike, and making sports, while ordered probit estimation strategy is employed to capture how the individuals’ perception on their health is impacted by the level of physical activity. This relationship is explored both for the whole population and separately for three age groups: 15 to 19 years (adolescents), 20 to 64 years (adults), and 65 years and older (elders) in order to gain better insight into the association between physical activity and self-reported health. Our findings reveal that, excepting the adolescents’ group, higher physical activity level is significantly associated with an improvement in individuals’ perception on their health status. Irrespective to age group, this association is slightly reduced when accounting the effects of other health determinants. These results outline that the recommendations on physical activity for health should be take into consideration the specificity of each category of population.

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