The role of self-efficacy, self-esteem and optimism for using routine health check-ups in a population-based sample. A longitudinal perspective

While several cross-sectional studies have shown that self-efficacy, self-esteem and optimism are associated with the use of routine health check-ups, little is known about this relationship based on longitudinal studies. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to examine whether these factors are associated with routine health check-ups longitudinally. Data were retrieved from a population-based longitudinal study of individuals (≥ 40 years of age) residing in private households in Germany (two waves: 2008 and 2011). Widely established scales were used to quantify self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism. Respondents reported whether they used a health check-up in the last two years. Conditional fixed-effects logistic regressions were used (n = 1504), adjusting for socio-demographic, lifestyle and health-related variables. After adjusting for various potential confounders, regression analysis revealed that the use of routine health check-ups increased with self-efficacy [OR: 1.71 (95%-CI: 1.14–2.55)], self-esteem [OR: 1.78 (1.16–2.73)], and optimism [OR: 1.37 (1.01–1.86)]. Furthermore, the use of routine health check-ups increased with changes from employment to retirement [OR: 2.60 (1.34–5.03)], whereas it was not associated with changes in age, marital status, smoking status, the number of physical illnesses, self-rated health and body-mass index. The current study stresses the importance of an association between screening behavior and self-efficacy, self-esteem and optimism longitudinally. Interventions aiming at modifying these psychological factors might help to increase the use of routine health check-ups.