Table 2.

Relationship between self-rated health (as a continuous and dichotomous) variable and mortality

	Cox proportional hazards ratio for death during the study (95% confidence interval)
	Male	Female
Self-rated health at entry
(a) Ordinal Variable
Very good	0.62 (0.23–1.68)	-
Good	0.84 (0.64–1.11)	1.73 (1.08–2.77)
Average	1	1
Poor	1.52 (1.20–1.93)	1.66 (1.29–2.14)
Very poor	2.40 (1.66–3.46)	2.49 (1.77–3.48)
P for trend	<0.001	<0.001
(b) Dichotomous variable
Very good/good/average	1	1
Poor/very poor	1.69 (1.36–2.10)	1.74 (1.38–2.20)