Study Of The Effects Of Living Environment And Health Behaviors On Subjective Well-being Of Tibetan Residents

BackgroundWell being is an important goal commonly pursued by human beings,and is an important indicator for judging social harmony and measuring social progress.Enhancing the well being of residents is an important value pursuit for national and social governance.Western ethnic regions,due to their inherent regional disadvantages and relatively backward development in various aspects such as economy and education,should focus more on.At present,there are fewer studies on subjective well-being in western ethnic areas,so it is important to study the current situation of subjective well-being of residents in western ethnic areas and its influencing factors to improve the subjective well-being of residents.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to analyze the current situation of the subjective well-being of Tibetan adult residnts,explore the factors that influence subjective well-being in general,such as living environment and health behaviors,and further explore the mechanisms of the effects of living environment and health behaviors on subjective well-being.In order to provide a basis for policy formulation and implementation based on the findings in a targeted manner,so as to effectively improve subjective well-being.MethodsData for the study were obtained from an extension study of the 2018 National Health Services Survey Project in the Tibet,which primarily used information from a portion of the Family Health Survey questionnaire to collect individual-level information about demographics,socioeconomic variables,and information related to the health of the respondents,and added a personal well-being index scale to measure residents’ subjective well-being.The inclusion criteria for this study were 18 years and older,self-answering questionnaires,and Tibetan residents.Subjective well-being was expressed by personal well-being index scale scores.The living environment included three indicators of the type of household toilet,type of drinking water,and the altitude of the administrative village to which they belonged.Health behaviors included three indicators of the number of exercises per week,whether or not to smoke,and whether or not to drink alcohol.The data were screened and analyzed by STATA17 and SPSS26.0.The validation analysis of the scales was conducted through structural equation modeling tests;composition ratios were used to describe categorical variables,means and standard deviations were used to describe continuous variables;univariate analysis was used to explore whether the differences in subjective well-being between variable groups were statistically significant;then the effects of many factors,such as living environment and health behaviors,on subjective well-being were explored through multiple linear regression and generalized structural equation.P<0.05(two-sided)was considered a statistically significant difference.ResultsThe final sample of 2113 people was included,with an average age of 45.96±0.31 years,a slightly higher proportion of women(54.8%),more than 80%of the residents were rural(82.06%),and more than half of the residents had not attended elementary school(57.03%).The percentage of residents who never exercised reached 69.57%,and 83.53%of residents are now non-smokers,and 63.70%of residents did not drink alcohol in the past 12 months.The study found that 47.14%of residents’ households have tap water as their main drinking water,26.74%have no toilet in their own homes,and 46.95%live above 4,000 meters above sea level.The scores of residents’ subjective well-being ranged from 16.67 to 100,with a mean score of 69.04(±14.97).Residents had the highest satisfaction score for interpersonal relationships(81.12±18.51)and the lowest satisfaction score for their own health(63.89±21.51).The differences in subjective well-being scores were statistically significant for age,household registration,education level,marital status,employment status,and annual household income.Differences in scores were statistically significant for BMI,whether or not they had hypertension and other types of chronic diseases(except hypertension and diabetes),different subgroups of type of drinking water at home,whether they owned household toilet,exercise,smoking,and self-rated health.There were no significant differences in subjective well-being scores across different subgroups for each variable of establishing a health record,signing up for family doctor services,alcohol or altitude.The results of the multiple linear regression showed that the type of drinking water,exercise,and self-rated health affect the subjective well-being of residents.The results of the generalized structural equation model showed that in terms of living environment,the type of drinking water had a direct effect on subjective well-being(0.275)and an indirect effect on subjective well-being through self-rated health(0.122),with the direct effect dominating.Regarding health behaviors,performing physical exercise produces positive direct(0.083)and indirect(0.044)effects on residents’ subjective well-being,with the direct effect dominating;smoking produces a completely indirect effect(0.112)on subjective well-being through self-rated health.Conclusions and SuggestionsThe study found that there is still space to improve the subjective well-being of Tibetan residents,especially in terms of their satisfaction with their own health.The coverage rate of residents’ household running water still needs to be improved,and attention still needs to be paid to residents’ daily exercise.Increasing tap water coverage,improving residents’ health behaviors,and enhancing their own health can all improve their subjective well-being.Better living environment and health behaviors improve residents’ subjective well-being by enhancing their self-rated health status.Based on the above findings,the following suggestions are made to improve the subjective well-being of Tibetan residents:increase the coverage rate of running water and improve the living environment;promote physical exercise among residents and reduce bad behaviors such as smoking and drinking;secure employment and raise income levels of residents and improve their health.