Overall self-rated health as an outcome indicator in primary care

The ultimate goal of health care systems is to improve overall health from the patient's point of view. However, overall self-rated health is not routinely monitored as a performance indicator. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using a measure normally employed in community health surveys as a quality indicator in primary care clinics.

In order to do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of community medicine patients treated in five clinics in Amarillo, Texas to test the theory that, in primary care patients, a single-item measure of self-rated health is significantly related to the usual risk factors found in community health surveys (environmental factors, demographic characteristics and health behaviours).

Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that age, race, frequent mental distress, current smoking and health confidence were independently related to the odds of reporting good health.

Our results support using a single-item measure of self-rated health in primary care. Our data also suggest that encouragement of health confidence would appear to be in the best interests of patients.