ABSTRACT
The study of general health and happiness has largely been considered as two different fields. The study of Subramanian, Kim and Kawachi changed this by analysing health and happiness in US states within a single multivariate model. Eikemo, Mastekaasa and Ringdal applied this same approach in a comparative study of health and happiness in Europe based on a combined analysis of the first two rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) conducted in 2002 and 2004. ESS covers some East European countries but includes only Slovenia from the Western Balkans. The questions on general self-reported health and happiness are asked in an identical manner in the ESS and the South-East European Social Survey Project (SEESSP). The sociology of health is based on the assumption that self-reported health is partly determined by peoples own socio-cultural perception of what good or poor health should be. Consequently, some health researchers do not fully rely on the subjective measures as valid indicators of health.
