Impacts of Health (In)congruence on Older Adults’ Health Behaviors: Does Gender Matter?

Health behaviors among older adults are important drivers of healthy aging. This paper aims to investigate the effects of health (in)congruence on the adoption of health behaviors among older adults. Based on data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, health (in)congruence is defined as the level of congruence between subjective and objective health. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis are employed. The results reveal that the propensity to adopt health behaviors decreases sequentially from good health realists, to health pessimists, to poor health realists, and finally to health optimists, highlighting the significant detrimental effects of overconfidence. Besides, the moderating effect of gender is confirmed, where female older adults will suffer greater harm from overconfidence. The findings are expected to provide valuable implications for administrators to promote socially healthy aging.