Title

General feelings of gratitude, gratitude to god, and hemoglobin A1c: Exploring variations by gender*

School/Department

Rosemead School of Psychology

Publication Date

5-11-2017

Abstract

Research indicates that feeling grateful is associated with better physical health. However, most studies rely on self-reports of health. The purpose of this study is to see if feelings of gratitude in general as well as feeling grateful to God specifically are associated with a key biomarker of health – hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). HbA1c is an indicator of blood sugar control. In the process of assessing the relationship between gratitude and HbA1c, an effort is made to see if the relationship between these measures and HbA1c vary by gender. Findings from a recent nationwide survey indicate that women are more likely than men to feel grateful in general and to feel grateful to God. The results further reveal stronger feelings of general gratitude are associated with lower levels of HbA1c. However, this relationship did not differ for men and women. In contrast, feeling grateful to God was associated with lower HbA1c, but this relationship emerged among women only.

Keywords

Gender; Gratitude;

Publication Title

The Journal of Positive Psychology

Volume

12

Issue

6

First Page

639

Last Page

650

DOI of Published Version

10.1080/17439760.2017.1326520

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