Entrepreneurs may have better health

Entrepreneurs are less likely to report chronic health problems such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, a survey indicates. The findings are based on more than 273,175 interviews conducted Jan. 2, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012, with U.S. adults as a part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Gallup classified 6,896 of these respondents as entrepreneurs if they self-identified themselves as both self-employed and as a business owner. Entrepreneurs report better health habits than other workers, which might be responsible, in part, for the lower chronic disease rates for this group. Entrepreneurs were more likely than other employed adults to say they exercise frequently -- 60 percent versus 54 percent; 61 percent of entrepreneurs said they ate fruit and vegetables regularly versus 55 percent of other workers and 67 percent of entrepreneurs were more likely to say they ate healthy all day yesterday compared to 61 percent of other workers. However, smoking rates were about equal between entrepreneurs and other U.S. workers. One-in-4 of the entrepreneurs lacked health insurance, compared to 10 percent of other workers. The reason for the difference is not clear, but it could either reflect the high cost of health insurance for individuals and small business owners, or a greater willingness of entrepreneurs to accept the risk in not having health insurance because they are healthier. Entrepreneurs were more likely to not have enough money to pay for the healthcare or medicine they or their families needed and also significantly less likely than other workers to say they visited a dentist in the past year. The margin of error for the entrepreneurs was 1. 4 percentage points, while the margin of error of the employed non-entrepreneurs was 0.2 percentage points.