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Cited by 94Aging, Health, and DisabilityHealth Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeFrailty in Older Adults

A Single-Item Self-Rated Health Measure Correlates with Objective Health Status in the Elderly: A Survey in Suburban Beijing

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Meng, Qinqin, Xie, Zheng, Zhang, Tuohong·2014·Frontiers in Public Health
DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00027PMC PMC3989711
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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The measurement of health status of the elderly remains one important topic. Self-rated health status (SRH) is considered to be a simple indicator to measure the health status of the old population. But some researchers still take a skeptical view about its reliability. This study aims to investigate the association between SRH indicator and health status of the elderly and discuss its subsequent public health implications. METHODS: In a total 1096 people who were 60 years of age or older from 1784 households from a suburban area of Beijing were interviewed using multistage stratified cluster sampling. SRH was measured by a single question "please choose one point in this 0-100 scale, which can best represent your health today." The disease status and physical functional status were also obtained. A multiple linear regression was conducted to test the associate between SRH and individual's disease/functional status. RESULTS: The average of SRH scores of the elderly was 72.49 ± 15.64 (on a 1-100 scale). The SRH scores declined not only with the severity of self-reported mental/disease status, but also with the decrease of physical functional status. Multiple linear regression showed that after adjustment for other variables, 2-week sickness, chronic diseases, hospitalization, and ability of self-care (washing and dressing) were able to explain 35% of the variation in SRH among the elderly. Among them, disease status and self-care ability were the most powerful predictor of SRH. After adjusting other variables, physical functional status could explain only 5% of the variation in SRH. CONCLUSION: Self-rated health reflects the disease/functional health status of the elderly. It is an easy-to-implement variable and it can reduce both recall bias and investigator bias, thus being widely used in health surveys. It is a cost-effective means of measuring the health status. However, the comparability of SRH in different populations should be studied in future.

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  • The health measure used has been tied to objective health outcomes including hospitalization, chronic disease, and mortality in other research.

    “In fact, we used a validated health measure that has been tied to objective health outcomes, including hospitalization, chronic disease, and mortality, in other research (DeSalvo, Bloser, Reynolds, He, & Muntner, 2006; Meng et al., 2014; Strawbridge & Walhagen, 1999).”

    From Killing Me Softly: Organizational E-mail Monitoring Expectations’ Impact on Employee and Significant Other Well-Being (2021) · cites this paper as Meng et al., 2014

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Cited by

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Authors
Meng, Q., Xie, Z., & Zhang, T.
Affiliations
Peking University (CN)
Corresponding author
Zhang, Tuohong
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Public Health
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2014-04-10
Volume
2
Pages
27-27
ISSN
2296-2565 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2014.00027
PMC
PMC3989711
OpenAlex
W1975450102
Cited by
94
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6
FWCI
4.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Greater South Information System
Funders
Peking University
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Frailty in Older Adults
Keywords
self-rated health, elderly health, disease status, physical functional status, self-care ability, chronic disease, hospitalization, recall bias, health status measurement, Beijing

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