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Hope in the general Norwegian population, measured using the Herth Hope Index

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2003

TONE RUSTØEN ,
ASTRID K. WAHL, ,
BERIT R. HANESTAD, ,
ANNERS LERDAL, ,
CHRISTINE MIASKOWSKI,  and
TORBJØRN MOUM
TONE RUSTØEN
Affiliation:
Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing, Oslo, Norway
ASTRID K. WAHL,
Affiliation:
Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing, Oslo, Norway
BERIT R. HANESTAD,
Affiliation:
University of Bergen, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Bergen, Norway
ANNERS LERDAL,
Affiliation:
Buskerud University College, Faculty of Health and Division of Disaster Psychiatry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
CHRISTINE MIASKOWSKI,
Affiliation:
Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
TORBJØRN MOUM
Affiliation:
Department of Behavioral Sciences in Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway
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Abstract

Objective: The aims of this study were to describe hope in a large sample that was drawn from the general Norwegian population and to examine how sociodemographic and health-related variables were related to hope.

Methods: Of 4,000 adult citizens, randomly drawn from the National Register, 1,912 (49%) returned the Norwegian version of the Herth Hope Index (HHI).

Results: When demographic and health-related variables were controlled for, age, gender, marital status, and employment status were significantly related to hope. The most important health-related variable was self-assessed health status, with participants who were satisfied with their health reporting significantly higher levels of hope. Participants who indicated that they had a chronic disease reported significantly higher hope scores compared to those without a chronic disease. Older men, individuals who were receiving a pension or were unemployed, and individuals who were widowed or unmarried reported the lowest levels of hope. In this study, an individual's subjective evaluation of his/her health was the most important health-related predictor of hope.

Significance of the research: The most important health-related variable that predicted hope was self-assessed health in that participants who were satisfied with their health reported higher levels of hope. This finding suggests that an individual's subjective assessment of health is a better predictor of hope than the presence a chronic disease. Knowledge about levels of hope in the general population can be used as reference values against which an individual score or a group mean may be compared.

Keywords

HopeHerth Hope IndexGeneral populationPredictors of hopeChronic illness
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 309 - 318
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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