Self-rated health, physician-rated health and associated factors among elderly men: the Finnish cohorts of the Seven Countries Study.
OBJECTIVE
To study self-rated and physician-rated health, to analyse concordance of the two methods and to examine factors explaining differences between self-rated and physician-rated health.


METHODS
Population-based cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Finnish cohorts of the Seven Countries Study.


METHODS
470 men aged 70-89 years.


METHODS
Self-administered questionnaire and clinical examination.


RESULTS
General health status estimated by doctors correlated weakly with self-rated health. The strongest determinants of self-rated health were depression (P < 0.0001), coronary heart disease (P = 0.0112) and dysuria (P = 0.0238). Activity of daily living (P < 0.0001), age (P = 0.0001), coronary heart disease (P = 0.0005) and chronic lung disease (P = 0.0064) were independently related to physician-rated health.


CONCLUSIONS
The discrepancy found in ratings of health between physicians and the subjects themselves can be explained by different appreciation of ageing in the assessment of health status. After adjustment for medical conditions, age did not relate to self-perceived health, whereas there was a significant association between age and doctors' ratings. Depression and symptoms which explained self-ratings were not related to physicians' assessments.
Kivinen
P
P
Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland.
Halonen
P
P
Eronen
M
M
Nissinen
A
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012803:Sick Role