A Prospective Study of Life Changes and Subsequent Health Changes

Abstract

The relationship of life events requiring social readjustment to subsequent health change has been examined through use of the Schedule of Recent Experience and the Life Change Unit Scale in a prospective study of 134 cadets enrolled in an officer training program. Significant positive correlations were found between life changes and health changes reported on a daily basis for the first two weeks of the training program and for succeeding four- and eight-month periods. There were no significant correlations between number of health changes and number of life-change items reported or number of adjectives checked on the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, indicating that such personality variables as tendency to check items or recall ability are not the determinants of the correlation between reported life change and subsequently reported health change. The data support the hypothesis that disturbance in social equilibrium is reflected in disturbance of physiological equilibrium manifested by perceived and reportable health change.