The structure of physical health status. Comparing proxies and self-respondents.
Because gerontological studies often need to rely on the use of proxy respondents, the comparability of proxy and self-respondents is of particular interest.  However, it is often impossible to evaluate response agreement between proxy and self-respondents because the necessary data are not available.  This study addresses the problem by using a model of health status to evaluate differences between proxy and self-respondents regarding the conceptualization of health status.  The model included three dimensions of physical health:  chronic illness, functional limitations, and subjective health.  Three groups of respondents who differ regarding proxy status and/or physical health status were compared.  A subset of matched self-respondents (n = 146) was selected to be comparable in objective health status to respondents who have proxies (n = 140).  The third group consisted of physically healthier self-respondents (n = 1,425).  Data came from the Study of Well-Being of Older People in Cleveland, OH.  No support was found for the expectation that proxies and self-respondents would weight objective health information differently when providing summary statements of subjective health.  The results suggest that proxies rely on a conceptualization similar to self-respondents when providing information about another person's health.
Lawrence
R H
RH
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States