Physicians' ratings of health in middle and old age: a cautionary note.
Physicians' global assessments traditionally have been considered to be relatively objective estimates of older people's health against which self-ratings of health and other self-reported measures are compared. Using data on middle-aged and older Mexican Americans from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, it is suggested that the subjective component of physicians' assessments can create problems with validity, especially when a small number of physicians perform the assessments, as was the case in this study. It is recommended that researchers should not always assume that physicians' assessments represent an objective "gold standard" for validating self-reported measures of health.
Markides
K S
KS
Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.
Lee
D J
DJ
Ray
L A
LA
Black
S A
SA
D000069:Acculturation; D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D015206:Southwestern United States