Mastering the canvas of life: Identifying the antecedents of sense of control using a lagged exposure-wide approach

Abstract

Accumulating studies have documented strong associations between a higher sense of control and improved health and well-being outcomes. However, less is known about the determinants of increased sense of control. Our analysis used data from 13,771 older adults in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)-a diverse, longitudinal, and national study of adults aged >50 in the United States. Using generalized linear regression models, with a lagged exposure-wide approach, we evaluated how changes in 59 predictors (i.e., physical health, health behavior, and psychosocial factors) over a 4-year period (between t₀;2006/2008 and t₁;2010/2012) might lead to changes in sense of control another 4-years later (t₂;2014/2016). After adjusting for a rich set of baseline covariates, changes in some health behaviors (e.g., sleep problems), physical health conditions (e.g., physical functioning limitations, eyesight), and psychosocial factors (e.g., positive affect, purpose in life) were associated with changes in sense of control four years later. However, there was little evidence that other factors were associated with a subsequent sense of control. A key challenge in advancing intervention development is the identification of antecedents that predict a sense of control. Our results identified several novel targets for interventions and policies aimed at increasing a sense of control.

Keywords: health and well‐being; mastery; older adults; outcome‐wide epidemiology; sense of control.