Abstract
The need to find accurate and reliable indicators on which to base the planning, provision, and evaluation of health services gave impetus to the attempt to develop reliable and valid measures of the perceived health status of the consumers of health care. Subjective measures can provide an important complement to traditional statistics by giving direct access to the personal feelings of discomfort or distress that influence the use of health services. Such measures also give meaningful criteria for the evaluation of the efficacy of such services. Self assessments of health obtained from surveys and interviews have consistently found age and sex differences in the tendency to report symptoms, ill-health, disability, visits to doctors, and sickness absence. Many of these data, however, may have been misleading in using instruments of unknown or uncertain validity and reliability. Nevertheless, subjective assessments of health have been shown to have value and to add a dimension to objective measurements of health. They have been considered to be one of the better predictors of mortality and of adjustment to major episodes of illness.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Gove W. R., Hughes M. Possible causes of the apparent sex differences in physical health: an empirical investigation. Am Sociol Rev. 1979 Feb;44(1):126–146. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Haynes S. G., Feinleib M. Women, work and coronary heart disease: prospective findings from the Framingham heart study. Am J Public Health. 1980 Feb;70(2):133–141. doi: 10.2105/ajph.70.2.133. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hunt S. M., McEwen J. The development of a subjective health indicator. Sociol Health Illn. 1980 Nov;2(3):231–246. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11340686. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Levinson D. J. The mid-life transition: a period in adult psychosocial development. Psychiatry. 1977 May;40(2):99–112. doi: 10.1080/00332747.1977.11023925. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Maddox G. L., Douglass E. B. Aging and individual differences: a longitudinal analysis of social, psychological, and physiological indicators. J Gerontol. 1974 Sep;29(5):555–563. doi: 10.1093/geronj/29.5.555. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Marcus A. C., Seeman T. E. Sex differences in reports of illness and disability: a preliminary test of the "fixed role obligations" hypothesis. J Health Soc Behav. 1981 Jun;22(2):174–182. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- McKenna S. P., Hunt S. M., McEwen J. Weighting the seriousness of perceived health problems using Thurstone's method of paired comparisons. Int J Epidemiol. 1981 Mar;10(1):93–97. doi: 10.1093/ije/10.1.93. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nathanson C. A. Sex, illness, and medical care. A review of data, theory, and method. Soc Sci Med. 1977 Jan;11(1):13–25. doi: 10.1016/0037-7856(77)90141-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nathanson C. A. Social roles and health status among women: the significance of employment. Soc Sci Med Med Psychol Med Sociol. 1980 Dec;14A(6):463–471. doi: 10.1016/0160-7979(80)90045-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Newberry P., Weissman M. M., Myers J. K. Working wives and housewives: do they differ in mental status and social adjustment? Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1979 Apr;49(2):282–291. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.1979.tb02609.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Verbrugge L. M. Sex differentials in morbidity and mortality in the United States. Soc Biol. 1976 Winter;23(4):275–296. doi: 10.1080/19485565.1976.9988243. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- WILLIAMSON J., STOKOE I. H., GRAY S., FISHER M., SMITH A., MCGHEE A., STEPHENSON E. OLD PEOPLE AT HOME. THEIR UNREPORTED NEEDS. Lancet. 1964 May 23;1(7343):1117–1120. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(64)91803-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]