Self-Assessment of Health: A Longitudinal Study of Elderly Subjects.

Fifteen years after 270 persons 60 years of age and over were first studied in a multidisciplinary longitudinal study of aging, 83 panelists were available for a sixth observation. In an investigation of the relationship between self and physicians' assessment of general health status the following was demonstrated: (1) There is a persistent, positive congruence of the two types of health ratings. (2) Whenever there is incongruity the tendency is for the individual to overestimate his health. (3) There is a substantial stability of both types of ratings through time. (4) The self health rating tends to be a better predictor of future physicians' ratings than the reverse. (5) Self-ratings of health have utility as a measure of health in survey research when objective measures are not feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]